[adrianN]

We have "made contact" with pretty much every species that display even a little intelligence though, including ants. Ants just don't notice when they run inside some scientist's experiment. Do you propose that we're so drastically inferior that we don't even know someone is having us find the cheese in a maze?

[millstone]

Yes, I think this is literally true. Messages may be encoded in the arrangement of stars, via PCM-neutrinos, etc., and humanity would be ignorant.

The history of biology is discovering species in places previously thought unlivable: impossibly salty environments, volcanic vents, etc. A natural extension is finding species in places "above" humanity.