Yes, there are so many galaxies, too many stars, and even more planets. Such scales and numbers always stagger the imagination. Nevertheless, I still side with the Monodian line of thinking that sees complex life, or more accurately, macroscopic life (even bacterial life forms are extremely complicated), as so rare that we may as well consider our biosphere (which is only impressive to us, particularly when looking out of the window of a jet plane, but is in fact so thin, so diaphanous that in galactic terms it has as much reality as the halo of an angel) as a singular thing in the universe.

What use is it to say or believe that there is life elsewhere when the chances are we will never see or encounter any of it. The spaces between things is as vast as the time between them. We often forget that life happens in a window of time; it is not some scholastic substance but a chronological movement. The window of life on earth will probably be about 4.5 billion years. We are now in its middle age. Senescence is around the corner. Not even the most exceptional extremophile will escape the expansion of the sun. At this distant time, the last living thing will make the last decision in the universe. It will think to move that way and die doing so.