When asked about the the purpose of sending messages out into the universe when it might take thousands of years to get any sort of answer Carl Sagan said:

"There are a lot of things in society that only go one way. Socrates talks to us, we don’t talk to Socrates" pic.twitter.com/fJTLL1Bd1N

— Fermat's Library (@fermatslibrary) August 6, 2020