To assume that a collection of beings which have obtained the ability to travel amongst the stars would focus their attention on a single species on a single planet is fundamentally selfish.
What resources does our earth contain that are not (more easily) obtainable elsewhere? If Drake's equation "holds", then what novelty do _we_ provide?
The "focus their attention" implies some total devotion. They could just study us or just come visit for the experience.
Like we "focus our attention" to thousands of wild life, with documentaries and shelters and various research, despite having obtaining the ability to travel among the continents (and even to the moon) and being much smarter than them.
Second, who said they have "obtained the ability to travel amongst the stars" in the first place? If they exist, they could be just like us, or even like us back in ancient times. And in that case, one would imagine they'd totally "care" for us, if they only could find us (like we care as to whether others exist or not).
Excellent 50 minute forum with 3 of the greatest brains of the 20th century.
God, The Universe And Everything Else: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKQQAv5svkk
Us. If the probability of an intelligent species developing are that low that there might only be a handful of intelligent species in our galaxy then making contact with each of them is extremely interesting if they are as curious as we are.
Morality - they might be utilitarian and desire to relieve the suffering of other sentient beings. Or force their weird alien morals onto them.
Competition - we might not be a threat now, but given a sufficiently long time, we could evolve into one. If they really don't care about us, it would cost them very little to exterminate us early.
If we were traveling amongst the stars today, with our values and morality as they currently are, and happened upon a world of what we'd consider to be primitive life, we'd probably scoop some up and put them in a zoo, or broadcast them on TV. We'd want to study them, learn what makes them tick, maybe try to see if communication was possible, but in the end, we'd get entertainment value from them.
Even if we left them be and studied from a distance, the human race would be fascinated. New life! A new place! We like new things. The news would cover these creatures ("Are they a threat to humanity? News at 11."), they'd be woven into stories and shows and movies in one form or another. If we could safely bring them back, people would want to see them in person.
We'd get a lot of entertainment value out of these new creatures. We're a curious race who manages to get bored of spectacular things quickly, which is a large reason we continue to innovate and push forward.
There's no way to know for sure what would motive another intelligent race to advance to the point where they'd reach for the stars, but if any of them shared a degree of curiosity, I doubt they'd pass us up if they found us. We'd be something new for them.
Maybe we'd end up in their stories, their drawings, their videos, or even their zoos. Maybe they'd be interested in how we smell, or the way we dress and decorate ourselves, or the things that we watch on TV. Our languages, our fights, our culture. Or maybe just the way we go about our business, missing some big cosmological truth that's so obvious to them, as if we're adorable little children.
Maybe we'd provide just enough entertainment value to be worth a quick trip. Or a long stay.
A super-intelligent species would have no trouble modelling and manipulating human politics from behind the scenes.
It's naive to assume that an interaction will look like the old explorer or conquistador model - a ship arrives, someone gets off it, and then demands to talk to the chieftain, or starts killing people and blowing shit up to make a point about power.
The set of all possible - and effective - interactions which doesn't look like that is much bigger than the set that does.
hehe, you forgot humanity's favorites:
enslavement
resource plundering
empire building