blueemu: given the near inevitability of life (which I also believe), the Fermi paradox becomes an even more pressing question than for those that think we were a one-off fluke.
What do you believe is the reason that we have not yet seen evidence of advanced extraterrestrial intelligence? A recent paper (http://arxiv.org/abs/1304.3381) gave an interesting new answer, or at least a new justification for an old answer, but I think the paper was very flawed even if the ideas themselves (and their new approach) are intriguing.
The Fermi paradox is a problem, agreed.
There are a number of possible solutions, none fully satisfactory.
It might be that while life is inevitable, intelligent life is not. The evolutionary survival value of intelligence has yet to be demonstrated. Perhaps a complex brain more of a handicap than an advantage?
Also, it's possible that the original microscopic life on Earth (bacteria, etc) was seeded onto our planet by cometary collision when another star passed close enough for the Oort Clouds to mingle. If intelligent life actually requires about ten billion years of evolution (from inorganic precursor chemicals all the way to insurance salesmen) with the first half of that evolution having taken place in a biosphere orbiting some other star... rather than the nearly five billion years that our own star has been shining... that would explain why the place seems so empty: the universe isn't much more than ten billion years old, and our race is one of the first to emerge.
We just don't know the answer.
Where can I get sushi in Nashville at midnight?