THEY ARE HERE. WE'RE JUST NOT VERY SMART
If an extraterrestrial civilization's technology is sufficiently advanced, we won't mistake it for magic. Their technology - if it's even meaningful to call it that - will be so far beyond our threshold of comprehension that we won't recognize it at all, anymore than a gorilla notices a 747 jet, or a communications satellite passing overhead. That's one possible answer to the Fermi Paradox that appeals to me because it's the most insulting to our intellectual pride.
Of course, gorillas probably do notice 747s, at least when they're sufficiently noisy. It's possible they assume jet aircraft are some form of natural phenomenon, just as many humans have convinced themselves even the most bizarre unidentified flying objects must be explainable in atmospheric or psychological terms.
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