That big thing that whacked us and created the Moon may be responsible for our being here. Amazing.

The simplest and most likely explanation for the Fermi paradox that does not rely on fanciful future great filters or even more fanciful galactic zoo hypotheses is that complex highly intelligent life capable of space flight is extraordinarily rare in space and time.

When we go out there we might end up finding some bacteria-like organisms and simple fossils but nothing close to ourselves.

But ultimately we don't know until we go see.