What the title says, I’m tired of the trope where humans are the least advanced in the universe.
I’d like to read something different where we’re the more advanced ones (not necessarily the most advanced). As an example I quite enjoyed the Ender’s Game sequels and the angle of us being the more advanced ones was quite interesting.
Do you have any recommendations?
honestly, that seems unlikely to me. uninhabited planets are abundant for resources, so we wouldnt really care about going for the very rare planet with intelligent life that poses ethical issues or some risk of fighting back, unless we were literally trying to use every scrap of matter in the galaxy which is bit more efficient and methodical than humans tend to be. Probably unlikely that theyd be biochemically similar enough to be safe to eat for that matter, beyond that most people would probably find that gross.
What I could see though is humans or some faction of humans thinking something along the lines of “they might be less advanced now, but someday they might surpass us or be a threat, so we should destroy/conquer/assimilate them while we have the advantage”