We define life as "what occurs on earth" and we expect to find it elsewhere in a universe with infinite dimension, variation and depth. Wolfram's principle of computational equivalence may very well be right, we could see life everywhere and not even know it. Maybe to recognize life we have to be related to it, maybe theres some sort of temporal entanglement going on or something, I don't know. All I do know is that a bug on my shirt doesn't know that I have a face, love my wife, talk to people on the internet, drive a car, look at pictures of mars or even that a planet exists, much less other planets. And we expect to be able to recognize higher intelligence when we see it? It's unrealistic, it's a simplistic mindset that shows a lack of understanding of even what it is this universe is doing here. And I don't claim to know that either, but I do see that theres infinite dimension no matter what resolution you look, everywhere, all the time, happening real time, and if its too big or too small I can't perceive it. Maybe the same is true everywhere for everything that can experience. Maybe observant entities that emerged completely separately are incapable of even perceiving each other.