I think life is the rule rather then the exception. I think life is a part of the fabric of existence along with space and time.
When you consider that there are over 100 billion galaxies each with around one trillon stars then there must be millons of worlds with intelligent life..
The earth is 5 billion years old, the known universe around 15 billion. That gives us 10 billion years of missing time.
We have found about 150 exosolar planets so far, all gas giants but within 10 years we will be able to detect earth sized planets. Within 100 years we will be able to go to the stars. As soon as we are able too we will visit planets around the other suns that we find.
It's impossible that intelligent life from other worlds is not here now considering the odds that within 10 billion years some races have not advanced more then 100 years ahead of us.
John
As they said in contact, if there is no other life out there, it's an awful waste of space.