[Virginia-American]

If you consider life on earth from the bacteria through humans, the odds against intelligent life developing, even on a hospitable planet like ours, is in excess of a billion to one.

The way I look at it, life has been on the Earth for about 4 billion (4x 10⁹) years, intelligent life about (say) 100,000 (10⁵), and radio-using life about 100 (10²).

So the odds against intelligence would seem to be 40,000 (4x10⁴) to 1, and against radio-using intelligence about 40,000,000 to 1. Not quite a billion, but...

[chickens]

So, technically, what you're saying is, the smartest people alive in the world, know full well the value of life -- and don't wonder where everybody is (in the universe). They already know where everybody is, so they buy real estate in gated communities and move in next door to them. In other words, this is it. Try to get a room with a view, no corner lots, because the chances of this ever happening again ... well.