[dwaltrip]

If it were the case that is incredibly unlikely for life to get started in general, we would still be making those observations, give that we are here. This is the problem with only having one poorly understood data point that we ourselves are part of.

I'm optimistic that there is life out there. And if so, we should be able to get hard evidence by studying exoplanet atmospheres in the next few decades. Until then, it is very difficult to assess.

[kosievdmerwe]

Essentially "The Anthropic Principle" if people want to read more about it.

[eloff]

Agreed that a sample size of 1 doesn't tell us much - but it does tell us something, which is my point.