#2 is not satisfying. The ant might not perceive humans but if the ant is not "special" then the ant should perceive tons of other life forms equivalent to its

#2 is not satisfying. The ant might not perceive humans but if the ant is not "special" then the ant should perceive tons of other life forms equivalent to its own level, across the islands that it can observe. Resolving the Fermi paradox by appealing to hypothetical aliens who are too high for us to perceive just feels like "aliens-of-the-gaps". The number of species on Earth with human intelligence (and quantity of such individuals) is orders of magnitude less than the number with ant intelligence. Aliens more advanced than us should similarly be that much less common than us. If humanity is not special, other aliens who are more equivalent to us are still missing.