I can only hope we are more technologically advanced than the other in first contact. I doubt we can hide from a more advanced species. We've been playing with road flares for over a hundred years. I'd find it hard to imagine anyone looking can miss it. The first fiction I encountered to this point of thought was Anne McCaffrey's Freedom series. certainly there are plot points that drive the story while ignoring potentially more likely possibilities, yet it was a great series and got me thinking about this quite a bit. This also happened to be around the release of ID4, Independence Day with Will Smith. Good fun and lots to think about. I'd unrealistically hope to encounter an alien species on my own terms and a favorable position. I'd probably only realize their presence as I'm captured for study.
