I wonder, has anyone in the UFO field ever thought or written about that humanity might just be as technologically enigmatic to 'whatever' it is we seem to be interacting with ? For example, and just going from an ETH point of view now, these beings might be technologically advanced way beyond us from what we 'see' and guess, but how about they have never dabbled in Atomic and Molecular Physics and use a completely different paradigm of 'physical laws'.Wouldn't they be as much interested in nuclear power and atom bombs they never discovered themselves, as highly advanced from our point of view they might be, as we are in the things we see 'them' doing ? In short, might it be possible we became interesting because we invented something they never even thought of and they are trying to get a grasp on it? (whoever/whatever 'they' are)
I've had similar thoughts myself.
Technological progress is not some linear ladder that moves forward always at the same rate and in the same direction. It's more like a web of serendipity guided partly by chance and partly by economic factors. It's more like evolution in that respect.
You can see this clearly in the 20th century. In the first half of the 20th century there was astounding breakneck advances in energy, propulsion, and transportation. In only 50 years we electrified much of the world and went from horses to cars, airplanes, and rockets. Then this innovation dramatically stagnated. The stagnation really started in the early 60s... we really went to the moon with polished and perfected 1940s-50s technology.
Today when we fly commercial airliners we're basically using 1950s technology jazzed up with modern computers and control systems. There might be some super-advanced stuff in secret, but I am actually a little skeptical of this. A lot of the fabulous stories of what "they" have in secret are a mix of psy-ops to convince the enemy that we're more advanced than we really are and defense/government contractor marketing efforts to put a lot of lipstick on a lot of pigs.
Meanwhile around the same time that transportation, energy, and propulsion totally stagnated we had this amazing explosion of telecommunications, computer, and information processing/storage technology. This explosion is still going on, though really fundamental innovation in these areas started to slow in the 80s.
A similar biotech explosion started in the 70s-80s and is still underway.
There may be whole areas however that have simply never gotten any "love" for whatever reason. Institutional politics within science and economic demand from outside of science/engineering can elevate one field to popularity while marginalizing others.
It is very likely that an ET race (or ED, etc.) may be far in advance of us in some areas and less advanced in others. It's quite possible that they (assuming "they" are here) have... say... mastered the manipulation of energy to a far greater degree than us and yet are controlling these systems with the equivalent of late 70s computer technology.