However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at.

There are too many accidents that can befall life on a single planet.

You can't regulate every lab in the world.

Maxwell is the physicist's physicist.

The intelligent beings in these regions should therefore not be surprised if they observe that their locality in the universe satisfies the conditions that are necessary for their existence. It is a bit like a rich person living in a wealthy neighborhood not seeing any poverty.

To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational.

Think of our DNA. In the last million years, our DNA hasn't changed at all. It's really much the same as it was in the jungle, a million, two millions years ago. But in the last 200 years, our destructive capacities have increased many, many millions of times over. Why don't we see intelligent signals from outer space? Because in all likelihood, once the civilization reaches the point our civilization has reached, it destroys itself.