So opinions, I'm leaning either towards hideous monstrosities that (before the event) had the voyager-1 probe crash land on their home planet, mistook it for proof of the divine and since then modeled their society after what they could decipher from the 'golden record'

OR

A race that was the biggest, baddest predator on its homeworld at approximately five inches tall and suffers massive inadequacy issues on the galactic stage--building everything far too big as a way of overcompensation.