Our perception and experience of reality is indeed shaped by our evolution and survival needs. As Deepak Chopra describes it, what we experience is a virtual reality suited to our particular biological, psychological, and sociological needs.

This is also in line with pragmatic philosophy. Some proponents may argue similar points based on what is useful to us as walking thinking apes.

Could there be life that we haven’t noticed? Absolutely! And we won’t notice until it effects us in a way that threatens, enhances, or otherwise alters our survival chances.

Another theory that I see very little discussion of outside of occult or pagan circles, is that Earth itself is a living being. Science is starting to get there by noticing that forests may be better understood as a linked entity rather than individual trees. Ant, bee, and other insect colonies may be better understood as a single organism rather than a colony. So why not the entire biosphere of Earth? Why not expand the definition of “living” and “organism” to include systems as well as the individual bodies that make up those systems?

This, I believe, should be our next step to try and understand life. Life will find any means to communicate and thrive. We remain stuck on neural, blood-borne steroids/hormones, and pheromones for communication. But ecologists document a far greater diversity of communication between species. What analogues would we find by comparing inter-body, inter-species, and cross-species communication? What if we discovered that we’ve been “talking” with the whole biosphere of Earth and it’s been talking back to us this entirely time?