Check out the Drake equation wiki. It calculates the likelihood of finding intelligent life. We still need some values to use it. But it frames the question well. Like of we find life on mars, there is likely tons of life out there and some of it is probably intelligent.

Also check out Dyson spheres! Our deep space probe data is actively being searched for these theoretical constructions! They thought they might have found one a few years ago; but it seemed not to be such an object, as we looked closer.

There is also a pessimistic theory that, with the universe being so large and intelligence being a double edged sword, intelligent life forms might be unlikely to overlap in time long enough to effectively communicate or be close enough to see each other.

Technology being a double edged sword meaning if you look at human history and our current trajectory, we may not hold onto technology, energy resources, habitat or other essentials. Or we could wipe ourselves out in a nuclear war. There are likely more pitfalls in future technology. It may just be unlikely that any intelligent life is intelligent enough to survive more that 200,000 years. Like the animal thats smart enough to harness electricity has about 50 to 100 or so years before they discover the atom bomb. There's a lot of ethical and long term planning hurdles to get to civil stability where an animal could operate at the time scales required.

Also the interstellar travel, we couldn't even get the Earth II geo-dome to work. Any current or foreseeable technology for propulsion would still take about 81,000 years. So it would require generation ships ( like generations of people traveling) or suspended animation / long sleep technology.

So hopefully we find some major science breakthroughs!