Terms like "practically infinite" are meaningless (my finger is practically infinite from an atomic perspective). We don't strictly "know" hardly anything about

Terms like "practically infinite" are meaningless (my finger is practically infinite from an atomic perspective). We don't strictly "know" hardly anything about our universe, rather we have certain models which make predictions which have so-far not been falsified. Drake equation, Fermi paradox, etc., fall under the umbrella of philosophical speculation. They aren't proper science until they make concrete predictions that we can test experimentally.