[henearkr]

Nice to see that I speak with a peer SF lover! ^^

I agree, I would be surprised if we discover first alien life in a non-chemical form. Somehow though I would love to be surprised!

There are so many possible environments and substrates, and we cannot think of all of them. The multiplicity of the places where things could happen, and the scale and age of the universe, also increase the possibilities that there are places with the right conditions or stability. The conditions on Earth were kind of lab-grade perfect too! Any nearby supernova, ill-directed solar flare, etc. could have nipped life in the bud. Only the huge number of Earth-like environment in the universe, and the large interval of time allotted, can justify that we have had the chance to arise in these conditions.

PS: also, to be fair, a lot of life forms in Baxter are actually engineered. But our First Contact (or First Observation) could be as well with a "natural" form as with an artifact! And that would not matter that much.