No one can offer any real opposition to that opinion.
However, what are the odds that the life that must exist elsewhere would ever cross paths with life here on earth.
It is not sufficient that the two lives cross paths in physical location they must also cross paths at the same point in time.
In consideration of the vastness of empty space what are the odds that different forms of life cross paths in both space and time. Life that is one billion years ahead or behind another life or separated by billions of light years in distance may not recognize each other.
You raise a key point.
Making contact requires two parties existing at the same time. And that may the difficult part. Depending on how you manipulate the various factors of the Drake Equation, you may get a few dozen to a thousand or more. The problem is that, even if each civilization has a time frame of ten million years from rise to collapse and they occur sequentially, the total time for 1000 is 10 billion years in a universe that is already 16+ billion years old. Since, as Carl Sagan said, there are “millions and millions and billions and billions,” there is a strong likelihood that there may never be more that two or three civilizations at any one time that are capable of interstellar space flight and they may all be in different galaxies. There will be long periods were there is only one or perhaps even none.
Then there is the “Great Filter.” I’ve attached a pretty good article that explains the concept.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wait-but-why/the-fermi-paradox_b_5489415.html
An additional thought.
With the probability of an encounter very low, a good working rule, for planning purposes, would be to assume we are alone in the galaxy. Not alone in the absolute sense of the word as that would bar the possibility of any life of any kind elsewhere. But alone in the effective sense of the word as it relates to the presence of advanced space faring civilizations (of which, we are still young babes in our stellar nursery).
While this assumption would no doubt disappoint the: 1)sci fi writers, 2) gamers, 3) generals and other contingency planners, and 4) the space battleship builders and other merchants of death, it would simplify interstellar mission planning by removing contingencies to be prepared for.
It would also be interesting to think about the protocol to be followed the first time human explorers out there actually do come across incontrovertible evidence of another space faring civilization.