Though Sagan's maxim is a good rule of thumb, I heard someone say, "If we only look for the extraordinary, we never find the ordinary." I am pretty sure that was Doctor Loeb.

I am not sure throwing money at science is a sustainable solution set. Hypothetically, if string theory is a dead end- continuing to throw billions at it because the math looks nice- that's a crime. If any other endeavor had had as much failure to produce anything practical, it would have ended long ago. Remote Viewing has had more statistical success than string theory, and it's not getting billions of dollars or academic scrutiny.

You invoke Orwell next to Sagan. 'Ignorance is strength' the meme that could have changed the world, and yet more we move towards enacting it. "Knowledge is strength' seem little better, if the knowledge set is founded on belief. If knowledge is little more than an accumulation of domain facts, like my religion is better than yours, your strength is still a lie! The only good thing about ignorance is that it can be corrected.

Humility can be a strength. Humility is recognition that I am partly ignorant, but partly capable of finding my way and recognizing others might be helpful. Should that humility lead to cooperative efforts, we all win.

Science today feels less like a cooperative and more like who can find the holy grail first so they can slap their name on it. That's not humility. There may be accumulated knowledge in the mass of folks hording proprietary secrets that might better the world, but that aint strength. If aliens beat humans, it will be because they aren't trying to make buck off patents, nor will they be divided and conquered by beliefs.