We LUCA are such attention whores.

If real evidence for complex life prior to our common ancestor is found, that'll make me re-think my view of Fermi's paradox.

FTR, I'm one of those 'if we don't see anybody out there, it's probably because there isn't anyone out there' guys

I'm in the "space is REALLY big, why do you think breaking the currently known laws of physics, knowing we're here and being able to say hello would only be a matter of time" camp, myself.

I'm a 'dark forest' person. If there is life out there, it's not going to be drawing attention to itself.

I've always thought that a major flaw with the Fermi Paradox is that it assumes all these hypothetical civilizations never die. As far as I know, the Drake equation doesn't take into account an extinction rate.

To me, the most likely answer is that there are many civilizations out there, but we are separated by both space and time. It may be pessimistic, but given how many things have gone wrong on our planet over just the last 100 years, I would be surprised if very many civilizations reach the point where they ever get advanced enough to leave the confines of their home planet.

That's the L parameter of the drake equation.

N = R* • fp • ne • fl • fi • fc • L

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation

Ah, I stand corrected. It looks like Drake himself speculated that the reason we don't see signs might be because L is low.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/53/e0/2b/53e02bebee12ff715b1a50d41422cb8b.jpg