I used to think like you, then I learned that our star-type is pretty rare. The only reason we are the dominant species, is because an Everest size meteor struck the Earth circa 65 million years ago, which set off a cascade of events leading to us.
In fact the only reason we have seasons, is thought to be because of that meteor, if those things hadn't happened, the Earth would have had a different set of naturally selective pressures.
Imagine an intelligent species from a water world, or on a rocky planet circling a red dwarf star (the most common type in the universe). As far as making tools all you need are opposing thumbs and a brain, like crabs, parrots, or any number of creatures.
Damn! I could think and talk about this for hours 😊.
One theory I don't think I mentioned in the video, is professor Brian Cox's. He said he had always thought a great way for an alien civilisation to contact us, would be to leave easily detectable balloons in the atmosphere, as they passed by. Just a kind of "hi, you're not alone" kind of message...
Cg
Ah, very interesting! It looks like I have more research to do. I can't imagine not having this natural curiosity about things but many people don't. We certainly had a lot of UFO sightings in central Ohio in the 1970's when I was growing up and had a few strange first-hand experiences ourselves. We were close to Wright-Patterson air force base so many of these (but not all) could be chalked up to experimental aircraft.