We may not see little green men ever
But we stand a good chance of meeting artifacts they left. If you assume they'd advance along similar lines to us then eventually they'd put Von Newman machines in space to exploit resources, just like we will someday, if we manage to survive long enough. Organic life can't cross the vast gulfs of deep space, but machines can. Machines built to exploit resources would be pretty much hardwired to strip solar systems. Whole galaxies even. Greed 2.0. Organics are just the rough prototype. Intelligence will build a better model.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
