"What worries me the most is that they're not trying. They could communicate
with us, all right, but they're not doing so because they don't see any point
to it. It's like…
…Like the ants. They occupy the same landscape that we do. They have plenty
to do, things to occupy themselves. On some level they're very well aware of
their environment. But we don't try to communicate with them. So I don't
think they have the foggiest notion we exist."
-Ellie from Contact (novel)
--Sagan