I'm betting on #2. We only have our own planet to look at, but if we could somehow rank all of the species on the planet according to intelligence, just jumping a couple of levels up or down you enter a completely different world of existence. Or as I like to quip, somewhere in the middle of the ocean there's an island. On that island is an ant hill, and there's an ant at the top of it wondering: Where are all of the other ants?
I don't really find it disturbing, though. Our "best practice" to interact with other species is to try to leave them alone and watch them enjoy and live in their habitat. Makes sense that's what we're doing for the alien overlords, and I'm okay with that. Assuming aliens are around somewhere and we're using our own planet to reason by analogy, the only other two alternatives are they're going to subjugate/destroy us or they're going to eat us. Those alternatives are not so fun.
I find it interesting that so many humans assume that since we can chat with one another, aliens somehow are supposed to show up and chat with us. It's all about us. If such a thing happened, the history of massively-different cultures interacting on Earth is not a positive one.
Given the choices, I'm good.
I don't really find it disturbing, though. Our "best practice" to interact with other species is to try to leave them alone and watch them enjoy and live in their habitat. Makes sense that's what we're doing for the alien overlords, and I'm okay with that. Assuming aliens are around somewhere and we're using our own planet to reason by analogy, the only other two alternatives are they're going to subjugate/destroy us or they're going to eat us. Those alternatives are not so fun.
I find it interesting that so many humans assume that since we can chat with one another, aliens somehow are supposed to show up and chat with us. It's all about us. If such a thing happened, the history of massively-different cultures interacting on Earth is not a positive one.
Given the choices, I'm good.