This discussion was whether advance intelligent life exists elsewhere - one that could be theoretically detectable in the EM spectrum
I certainly believe there is a decent probability that evidence of primitive, lower life will eventually be found in the galaxy or in our solar system.
There are
trillions upon trillions of planets in the known universe, and the odds of life existing elsewhere are staggeringly high—99.9999999999% or higher. Given the sheer numbers alone, it’s almost statistically impossible that Earth is the only planet with life, let alone intelligent life. Add to that the fact that there have been
millions of UAP sightings and even reports of abductions numbering in the millions. What are the chances that even a small fraction of these encounters are authentic? Are you seriously suggesting that
all of them are complete fabrications? That defies logic. When you look at the scale of the universe and the volume of credible reports, dismissing every single one out of hand is far more far-fetched than admitting there’s something real behind at least a few of them.
A few dozen or a few thousand individuals is still catastrophic for a species. An animal would get listed on the endangered species list if it's population plummeted to a few hundred or few thousand. All the articles I have seen about the homo sapiens bottle neck that resulted in our lack of genetic diversity indicated that homo sapiens were pushed close to extinction.
We don't have compelling evidence either way whether advanced sentient consciousness was inevitable on Earth, or whether is was a fluke.
We don't actually know how biology emerges from inert chemicals, and therefore we don't know if life is common in the universe, or if it's an exceedingly rare fluke.
Infinity has never struck me as a compelling idea for the universe, because while infinity is a legitimate mathematical idea, we have never seen infinity in the real world. It seems just as likely, or more likely that the topology of the universe is finite.
We don't have a shred of evidence whether the mathematical laws of nature and the physical constants are the same outside our visible cosmic horizon. Life simply cannot exist without a whole plethora of laws and constants being finely tuned to certain values.
To me, the assertion that advance intelligent life is inevitable or certain is based on a whole series of massive assumptions, and in a very real sense invokes a kind of perfect storm to support the assertion.
Infinity, if nothing else, exists as an abstract concept. And while abstractions may not have physical form, they are undeniably real in their own domain. Take the number 'one,' for example—it doesn’t physically exist as a tangible object in the material world, but it undeniably exists in the abstract realm of mathematics and logic. Infinity, too, exists as an abstraction, and just like the concept of numbers, its existence in the abstract makes it a real entity in that sense.
Now, given the nature of infinity, the statement "all that is possible is inevitable" holds because, over infinite time or space, every possibility must eventually be realized. The key question becomes what qualifies as "possible." And we already know that life is
possible because life exists here on Earth.
Even if we concede that the universe is finite, the astronomical scale of physical time and space still tilts the odds heavily in favor of life emerging elsewhere. The sheer magnitude of the cosmos—billions of galaxies, trillions of stars, and an incomprehensible stretch of time—virtually ensures that what is possible will, in all likelihood, occur again. So, while we may not have material infinity, we have
enough of the finite to approach the same conclusion.