To answer your question, jac...radio waves, being a form of electromagnetic radiation, will in fact last forever, unless such wave/s meet an object (cosmic dust, etc). Generally, however, this does not happen, since the matter in the universe is very diffuse (when averaged out over the volume of space it occupies)
(I guess you knew a professor was bound to show up here)
As the apparent "edges" of the observable universe are expanding away from us, at an exponential rate; then this adds to the difficulty of alien "contact"
Also if the Solar System was shrunk down to the size of a dime, then our Milky Way Galaxy, would be the size of America!
And there are trillions of galaxies, hence at these scales, the extraterrestrials may exist, but the distances are too great to bridge, even travelling at near the speed of light. Recent estimates put the real size of the universe at AT LEAST 250x larger than the observable universe! I hope you can see my point here.
Firstly, they thought that the Earth was so amazing, the Sun revolved around it. When this was disproved, it was held that the Sun is a pretty amazing star. Later it was discovered that the Sun was just a run of the mill "average" small to medium sized star. Clutching at straws, perhaps, it was then asserted (by some) that our galaxy is amazing and unique, when, in reality, it is just one of trillions. Now the universe is pretty amazing, but maybe it is but one of infinitely many universes itself (a multiverse)?
That may be true. But consider this: Nearly all serial killers, have had a bad/rotten childhood; but the vast majority of people, who have had such a childhood, do not become serial killers. This would suggest something genetic/biological is the defining difference here.
(I think this bloke means to say that we are breeding a generation of "high tech zombies). Soon there will be no jobs left for the "average Joe" A I will have taken many jobs, leaving many on Universal Basic Income (maybe); and with nothing to do. As usual, wealth remains concentrated in the hands of the top 1% (or less). (One reason, that I never had kids)
It must be said that this site is free to use. I publish poetry on here, for free, also. I have had commercial offers, to publish; but I'm not ready to do that (yet). And yes, I'm far and away better than chat GPT!!!
RE: Extra terrestrial communication.
Yeah, possibly. One must have some sympathy, here...