There might also be a lot of value in studying alien intelligence. We don’t know because we’ve never met any, but imagine doing so is a serious way to discover something new about how the universe can be understood at all.

Edit: by that, I mean the taxonomy on our phenomenology. There’s nothing ontological about feeling “good” or “bad,” nor “confused,” “scared,” or “horny.” Not even of those “aha” moments when you figure something out.

We have hundreds millions of years worth of systems evolution in our head, creating a damn fine survival engine. Hell, it even helps us feel a little like we understand the universe and how it works. Surely theres not just our way to do that, and aliens could be interested in our way.