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MacMeaties, now, keep in mind that I have slept since then...
I think I owe you an apology. I have, for the longest time, wanted to rant about Prime Apes and/or other intelligent species being directly compared to humans.
In reality we (likely) cannot comprehend a species that would compare to us as we compare to cats/dogs. This is, at least, in part because we DON'T KNOW how we compare to cats/dogs. We assume that we do, but the level of research on the topic is far, FAR too little and still has the innate assumption that we are the apex...
E.g. a species that directly and unilaterally psychically dominates any living thing they come within danger range of would NEVER develop weapons throughout their social and intellectual evolution. Weapons would serve utterly no point to them (tools to resolve nonliving issues, sure, but it wouldn't occur to them to use it on a living being).
(P.s. I mean the above in a sense where the species themselves is unaware of it, and simply pacifies the aggressor.)
Likewise, a species evolved deep below the surface (water or earth) would develop the ability to see, not in the human sense.
Basically, so long as we assume that WE are the apex, the standard, we will never understand or really even acknowledge other intelligence for what it truly is, not until either we destroy it or it destroys us. Ender's Game and its prequel are an excellent fictional example.
Heck, Neanderthals or any of the other proto-human or not "homosapien" species could very well have been more "intelligent" than homo sapiens, but were simply dealt a bad hand at everything else.
... Ok. I just did a word count... I am going to stop before people start dying of old age...