I think of it more as a chore.  Some otherworldly being’s job.. scanning non stop.. they don’t actually absorb the information.. the information is simply available in the collective conscious of all things,  but by being tuned to those specific photons, they have access to it. Life is everywhere, they know that and aren’t interested in any specific civilizations. they are simply scanning planetary history’s for some type of interstellar log.

Idk why I’m even saying these things.. it’s just what I’ve been thinking about