To my mind this always seemed the likely default...I was going to say psychologically convincing but of course there isn't a cosmological theory of psychology (

To my mind this always seemed the likely default...I was going to say psychologically convincing but of course there isn't a cosmological theory of psychology (or is there?). Lem's Fiasco is a good exploration of how we project our idea of culture, progress and sentience onto other notional intelligences in the Universe.