I'm reading Ratner's Star by Don DeLillo and feel like this is what sci-fi should be.
>signal is received from deep space, assumed to be sent by an alien civilization
>bunch of smart weirdos are gathered together to decipher it and come up with a potential response
>the smart weirdos are weird to the point of dysfunctionality, one of them couldn't handle the stress of thinking about the universe continuing to expand indefinitely and decided to live in a hole in the ground and eat grubs
>MC is a kid who won the Nobel Prize, is a math savant and one of the first things he does after arriving is spy on a woman taking a bath with the help of an epileptic janitor
Please read this book, it's from 1976