The thirst for discovery, knowledge of the world around you is always great, but the problem is that researchers are usually followed by quite pragmatic people who see in each new discovery nothing more than a source of material benefits. Moreover, it is a shame that the work of those same researchers is funded by the same pragmatic people, and therefore research projects that potentially will not bring money, most often turn out to be of no use to anyone. I think that something similar is happening with the search for extraterrestrial civilizations.