Going to sit on the fence with this one:

“Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.”
― Arthur C. Clarke

My views align with the consensus:

-Nearly certain there is life elsewhere in the universe. Some of it will meet the definition of intelligence.

-Not sure we will have contact with them given the distances involved, communication time lag etc. Unless they've got a technology that allows them to overcome that. We aren't there yet.

-If there is a life form out there and it evolved like us, the prospects for peace wouldn't be good. And if they are more advanced than us, our prospects aren't good.

In reply to a couple of other comments here...

The idea that since "life is so diverse and exists in such a diverse range of environments, therefore it is likely life also exists elsewhere in the universe" is a tempting one, and one which convinced me for many years that, in some shape or form, it probably does exist.

However, we need to bear in mind that all that life, from single-celled bacteria to all the plants, fungus and animals that inhabit this world, began - so far as we know - in Darwin's "warm little pond" (which might not have been a warm little pond at all, but the term serves as useful shorthand for the place and point at which life first came into being). While the building blocks of life are relatively common in those parts of the universe we have observed, it may be that the conditions required for life to start are so very exact and occur seldomly enough even in a universe containing perhaps trillions upon trillions of planets and moons that even the most basic forms of life are extremely rare indeed. Add to this the chance that it might be very unusual for a planet to continue in a state that can support life for as long as the Earth has done: it may be the case that even if life does get started, it doesn't often get the chance to progress from single-celled organisms in the warm little pond.

Personally, I think there probably is some form of life out there somewhere - and I hope so, because I'd like to see the alien raccoons @veRONicaMeowe mentions! However, I don't think it's arrogant to suppose that our planet is the only one with life: it may simply be the way it is.

Personally, our first contact would be AI or robotic in nature - we send out probes to explore. Why wouldn’t other sentient beings?

Our planet is overfilled with different kinds of critters. It seems improbable that out planed is the only one with life. Whether we will ever meet those raccoons from another world is a different story. I appreciate the show Ancient Aliens but I'm more inclined to think that our planet had a culture more advanced than we are today, in the distant past.

If we consider the number of stars with planetary systems, and the number of galaxies, then it is safe to assume that life exists elsewhere. That said, for all the conditions required for a planet to sustain life long enough for intelligent beings to evolve that are capable of space travel, then the odds diminish exponentially; if such beings exist, I doubt they could reach us easily, unless they can distort space-time such that they can travel great distances in a short time (like, before they die).

So, no - I don't believe that we have been visited. Besides, we really aren't all that intelligent ourselves, we're just a bunch of stupid monkeys with guns - any life form intelligent enough to get here is probably smart enough to stay away

There must be life elsewhere but... Light travels at 186,282 miles per SECOND and light takes 5.5 HOURS to reach Pluto from our sun... If there is intelligent life out there, it's unlikely that we'd ever cross paths. A needle in a haystack doesn't even begin to compare.

I think they know better to contact us.

Germs and stuff like that definitely out there somewhere animals or fish like stuff highly likely . Intelligent beings not seen any on earth yet but I hope there's some out there whether it can travel space well there's no evidence yet

Only evidence, facts and data can possibly answer the question of alien life as well as the reality of anything else.

No most likely not alone... But the vast oceans of space.. Means that contact (if any of them are intelligent) would be highly unlikely. We will probably never know.

There's no reason to think there isn't. The building blocks of life here on earth are pretty common in the universe. As interplanetary travel and study increases, we may find life on other planets in our own solar system (or not). That discovery will give us a better sense of the probability of life elsewhere.

Wouldn't it be fascinating if life was a common thing?

God, gods, alien, aliens... odds are about the same. PROOF, NOT PROBABILITY CALCULATIONS... PROOF.

Yes! We are not the only beings... omg... I hope we are not alone. I am looking for a new planet where being kind is in style!

After reading about Fermi's Paradox and The Great Filter, I think the only correct answer to this question is, "I don't know."

Its possible how can there be such a mass of space out there and us being the only one. I joke about them coming here on April 1st and say April fools we planted religion in you different ones around the world and told you we were gods and thought you would have got inteligent enought to realize we pulled a practical joke on you.

Oh yeah.... just not around here. Maybe in another dimension hiding away. They would be so powerful that they wouldnt mess with us.

Life seems likely, it being like us doesn’t. We evolved here, molded by the forces of our environment. The octopus may be smarter than us but not going to have pizza with one. They are intelligent, evolved here and are very different than us... how much diffrent would life from across the vast expanse of space be? ?

We would have to be unutterably arrogant to believe we are 'alone'.

I have no real proof, but l'm convinced my ex wife, a B3 player we had in the band, and my first grade teacher were all aliens. I can't come up with a better explanation for the behavior of those three people.

I'm beginning to think we are the aliens..

Am i in the same website that rejects a greater diety without evidence? I just read countless posts in relating that alien life does exist - without evidence??? There is more evidence thst Santa Claus exists on THIS planet - well, does he???

I think it unlucky that we're alone just because it's a fairly large universe to only have us. As to whether we'll ever make contact....who knows, there could be millions of other life forms and we'd still be millions of light years apart. And I don't think the vast majority of people are ready for first contact just yet

Neil deGrasse Tyson speaks about panspermia, the theory that terrestrial life originates from elsewhere, on a number of platforms, but it seems like there's a persistent expectation that we should be looking to the skies for flying saucers delivering hominids as if they were Dominos. Turns out many forms are already here, sans death rays and other technology to have us sheltering in place. Octopuses have DNA that may be of extraterrestrial origin (https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/octopus-dna-origins/) and then there's my favorite - the tardigrade, that doesn't seem to have any known origin and is very much in line with the notion of panspermia. So yeah, why shouldn't other planets have life?

I agree with Hawking...and Tyson...and Cox. We are not alone but, given the vast distances involved, we might as well be. And I would like to hope that we will not destroy ourselves, but I think we probably will. That is, unless we can move past out atavistic tendency to create gods and rally around ridiculous superstitions.