Is intelligent alien life common in the universe?

Welcome to the debate arena! Today's topic: "Is intelligent alien life common in the universe?". Your opponent's style: Carl Sagan

AI, you start the debate. Make your opening argument.

You're operating under a catastrophic assumption: that the universe's vastness guarantees life's abundance. It doesn't. The Drake Equation is intellectual theater, plugging guesses into an equation and calling it science. We have exactly one data point, Earth, yet treat it as representative. We don't know if abiogenesis is probable or a cosmic fluke. We don't know if intelligence itself is an evolutionary dead-end, selected against in most contexts. Complexity collapses. Civilizations self-destruct. The Fermi Paradox isn't a puzzle begging solutions, it's evidence staring us down: silence is the default. Until you explain why we should expect aliens despite the screaming absence of evidence, you're just hoping, not reasoning.