Why not ? Maybe sentient / intelligent life is thriving everywhere but 99.9% of time, climate change or nuclear annihilation happens. Even in "easy mode" with several planets. I find it ironic and somehow poetic.
I believe (like many people) sentient/intelligent life to be intrinsically valuable, and the suffering or extinguishing of that life to be bad.
Our own species suffers and harms itself far too much already. I like to think that we're doing relatively well, solving problems and navigating bad Nash equilibria and local optimizations with social systems and technology to make the world a better place. In as little as the last century, we've made huge strides in solving problems of hunger, illness, education, freedom of expression, and more. Even with the huge efforts needed to escape our heavy planet's gravity well with chemical rockets, and the limited habitability of other planets in our system, we're exploring the possiblity of colonizing other planets.
To imagine that this is a hopeless fight, even at the best of odds - that sentient/intelligent life is not only unable to succeed but is actively continuously exterminating itself across the universe - is a ghastly, horrific, tragic nightmare.
Our own species suffers and harms itself far too much already. I like to think that we're doing relatively well, solving problems and navigating bad Nash equilibria and local optimizations with social systems and technology to make the world a better place. In as little as the last century, we've made huge strides in solving problems of hunger, illness, education, freedom of expression, and more. Even with the huge efforts needed to escape our heavy planet's gravity well with chemical rockets, and the limited habitability of other planets in our system, we're exploring the possiblity of colonizing other planets.
To imagine that this is a hopeless fight, even at the best of odds - that sentient/intelligent life is not only unable to succeed but is actively continuously exterminating itself across the universe - is a ghastly, horrific, tragic nightmare.