This is no subject for the ordinary mind and I will say it was well written.
Fermi's paradox is quite interesting and a phrase from it says the argument for intelligent extra-terrestrial life is extremely strong; while the ending part says we have had no concrete evidence of alien life. Though a paradox, that phrase is quite ambigious if you ask me, but in today's context, expecially if you have read the Novel Doomsday Conspiracy by Sidney Sheldon, published in 1991, then you may want to quickly conclude that alien life exist .
If you haven't look for it and please read the last 3 pages detailing how different astronauts who wanted to reveal their space encounters with UFO/aliens died mysteriously. The details of their deaths and the circumstances sorrunding them are quite revealing and disturbing.
Going by the caption below, I strongly agree with Frank J. Tipler and considering the dynamic nature of the universe and it's endless vastness, I wouldn't say the odds are bad, I WOULLD SAY IT IMPOSSIBLE.
Then the chances of us being the first civilisation to think about creating von Neumann probes is slim to none. In fact the galaxy would be crawling with these machines by now, making them impossible to miss.
To scientists, impossible is nothing so it is worth a try. Who wouldn't want to see man touch the void.
Finally, I strongly believe that we are not alone in this vast and endless universe.
Thank you @cryptogee.
Thank you for your comments, I tried to stay away from the Pandora's Box of alien conspiracy, simply because it offers no concrete evidence. The 'Phoenix Lights' are the closest thing I've seen to possible 'evidence', however even they are inconclusive, we need 'Close Encounters' type evidence before we can say, yay! Definitely aliens! :-)
Cg