> rarely, if ever, evolves beyond primitive intelligence.

Given the complexity of the Periodic Table, molecules, DNA, &c can we agree that life is a low-probability event?

Previous paragraph omits the contextual perfection of our planet/solar system.

Seems fair to assert that we are a one-shot deal, until proven otherwise, here on Terra Fermi.

> Given the complexity of the Periodic Table, molecules, DNA, &c can we agree that life is a low-probability event?

Given how quickly life started on Earth after Earth's formation, it seems like it isn't a low-probability event, but it still might be considering it's the only place we've found life (not that we've made a dent in our search of the cosmos for life).

"Wind back the tape of life to the early days of the Burgess Shale; let it play again from an identical starting point, and the chance becomes vanishingly small that anything like human intelligence would grace the replay." - Stephen Jay Gould.

> Previous paragraph omits the contextual perfection of our planet/solar system.

It's perfect because it's the world we grew up in.