We are constrained by the limits of not our technology but our own thoughts and experiences. Socrates started with the assumption that I know nothing and in that is happiness. This opens our thoughts not to the constraint of our experiences and assumptions but rather to the endless possibilities that exist. But we are eager to find an explanation consistent with our experiences but become engaged in the limits of our thoughts because we have not experienced a fraction of all the experiences out there. Ergo there must be an infinite amount of explanations beside alien life and the drones being extraterrestrial. We must be open to that possibility which will lead us to the truth of which there is only one.
Thus the theory that was a passing thought of Asimov is a very intelligent and Socratic question. If there is intelligent life in our galaxy and given the probable age of our galaxy where is everyone else is a reasonable indirect period of the theorem of there must be intelligent life other than us in our galaxy. Notice it doesn’t say universe. A nuance that is importantly to the philosophical mind
Please forgive the error. Fermi. Not Asimov