There is an excellent hard science fiction book called permutation city that very related to this topic…it made me feel like i was in a dream when i read this post’s title
The scientific method wasn’t novel to the western world. It’s origins date back to when the Moors conquered the southern half of western europe - and by almost all historian accounts - modernized many institutions over the subsequent hundreds of years (eg, from cutlery to math and science).
I think the most relevant book on the west’s success is called complexity: a guided tour
These types of articles are always a bit befuddling, given how trite the perspectives are and how there's very little reasoning as to why a civilization so advanced that they have the tech for interstellar travel would want to come to Earth.
One of the few arguments that I've heard that tends to resonate is it might be an inadvertent visit or one for pure amusement (e.g., why you'd want to wander towards the less traveled parts of a hiking trail).
But perhaps this is all a bit overly critical because of the lack of progress on the topic...