I have no problem believing intelligent life existed somewhere else in the universe at some point or another. It’s the idea that they STILL exist that I can’t grasp.
The universe is 13.8 billion or so years old. Mankind has been advanced enough to send signals to the stars for what, 100 years? 200? In that relatively short time span we’ve also figured out about a dozen ways to kill ourselves entirely - to wipe away that capability.
What we’re looking for when we say “alien life” is something that came about in the same basic time period we did. Something at our relative level of progress. Too advanced and we may not even recognize their signals as “life.” Too backward and we wouldn’t sense them at all.
Even the difference of 1000 years - minuscule on the universal time scale - could make the difference. Think about it this way: If the aliens sun coalesced and their planet formed life just a million years earlier - .000007% sooner than our sun did - they’d be A MILLION years more advanced than us.
In my opinion, the Star Trek / Star Wars / general Sci-fi theory of encountering alien life close to as advanced as we are is virtually impossible. It’s much more likely that they’d be significantly more or significantly less advanced than us.
Of course, if the ancient alien theory is true (aliens spread through the galaxy seeding habitable planets with the seeds of life) then finding aliens similar to us much more likely.
I agree.