But we only see complex life in a narrower range of much milder conditions. I bet there's lots of space microbes but I agree with the parent to this comment that complex, intelligent life is probably pretty rare.
Milder conditions relative to our environment? this is subjective, where do you see complex life and how do you know that complex life requires "milder" conditions or that is rare if we only have ourselves as an example that happen to live in such an environment?
What stops bacteria that live in harsh environments to evolve even if probably slower? harsh meaning hard/impossible for ourselves or for life as we know on earth.
> That would mean there were 10 quadrillion, or 10 million billion intelligent civilizations in the observable universe.
>Our sun is relatively young in the lifespan of the universe. There are far older stars with far older Earth-like planets, which should in theory mean civilizations far more advanced than our own.
I think intelligent life is pretty special/rare, given the evidence.
What evidence? we don't have enough data to draw conclusions on this matter, we barely sent a very limited robot on mars and some probes in the solar system, the universe is huge.
We can't initiate contact because of primitive technology, we barely made it to the moon with huge costs.
Why aren't advanced civilizations that can reach us contact us? we don't know, there are many theories
Exactly, believing in God has about the same scientific support. I wonder how many people don't believe in God but do believe there is advanced, intelligent life that choose not to contact us and how they reconcile that set of beliefs.
I think it's quite the opposite, believing we are alone in the universe just because we don't have the capability to explore and detect life for me it looks the same as the belief people had a few hundred years ago that the sun orbits around the earth and we are the center of the universe.
