> We can detect neutrinos with advanced instruments... "We can detect things we were not evolved to detect" is a non-sequitur, a true statement that does not r

> We can detect neutrinos with advanced instruments... "We can detect things we were not evolved to detect" is a non-sequitur, a true statement that does not refute the original speculation. Because we can detect some things we were not evolved to perceive, does not mean we can therefore perceive aliens. It's a difficult concept to communicate. Empirically it's literally meaningless. Even the concept of meaningful vitiates discussion of this idea. Everything we are is perception, pattern recognition, threat assessment, problem solving. That there might be something important in our environment that we are simply not built to respond to is far easier to reject outright than to consider. This is why it's my favorite resolution to the Fermi Paradox, because it is so challenging to consider. Our cognition has evolved only slowly compared to our rapid technological advancement. Perception is not simply detection, but also cognition. Though we detect such previous unknowns as neutrinos and invisible electromagnetism and peculiarities of quantum physics, we think about them differently than that with which we are familiar only with expensive and difficult training, and even then it's arguable that we are modeling reality itself or modeling only our limited perception of reality. In short, while we are impressed with our abilities to understand our reality, we are still constrained by our evolved cognition to think effectively only about living by hunting and gathering in Earth-like conditions.