[Animats]

Right. It's discouraging. We now know that many stars have planets, and some of them are even in the Goldilocks zone. But if it takes a planetary collision to get water... And only one planetary collision, because each one wipes out essentially all life.

Look at the rest of the solar system. Mars - almost no water. Luna - almost no water. Venus, maybe water[1], but as steam. Too close to the sun and too hot.

[1] https://phys.org/news/2025-10-venus-clouds-reanalyzed.html

[Kerrick]

I find it incredibly encouraging. I fear aliens existing in sufficient enough quantity to find us more than I fear Earth being the only host to intelligent life until we escape it.

[Animats]

Probably not the only host, but habitable planets are sparse. If Einstein was right and faster than light travel is impossible, the number of planets we can even talk to is not that large. There are only 94 stellar systems within twenty light years.