How did the Ancient Mariner say it?
All, all alone on an empty sea!
All, all alone in a vast, lifeless universe.
Which is more frighteening? A universe teeming with life
or one where we are the ONLY life forms?
Achieving satori doesn't actually change the world.
To sort of quote a favorite story character:
If the world stopped every time one of us had a bad day, we would all be floating in space.
That sounds like something that Rod Serling might've said at the end of a Twilight Zone episode. Good question, too.
After multi billions of years, in the unimaginable vastness of space, WE are the only thing the universe has been able to produce.
A very scary, and very sad postulation, isn't it ?
As for intelligent life, it depends on how hungry they are and/or how cute (as with pets) they think we are!