Well, I suspect most of us with sufficient knowledge presume that there is other

Well, I suspect most of us with sufficient knowledge presume that there is other life and even intelligent life in the universe. The question is only whether:
(a) it’s possible to transit space and contact one another.
(b) we both exist at the same time
(c) we aren’t ‘early’ because the universe is relatively young, and it takes three generations of stars to produce the resources necessary for life, and it sure looks like it’s rather difficult to produce multi-cellular life.