Based on nothing but faith and an irreducible cynicism, my money says we end up going full circle, from "Earth is alone in the universe in regards to life" to "

Based on nothing but faith and an irreducible cynicism, my money says we end up going full circle, from "Earth is alone in the universe in regards to life" to "Life is a fungus, found anywhere the most basic of conditions are met" (at least over periods of millions of years at stellar scales) People forget that this discussion is not necessarily related to life. When various European explorers went out, in many cases they didn't know what to expect. When they met strange peoples, most of them refused to believe these were actually human. It takes a good long while for humans to recognize other lifeforms like us. We naturally think that we're unique, that wherever we call home is special and the center of things. Combine that with galactic distances and it might be a good while before we realize that the universe is actually full of aliens that look just like humans only with bumpy heads (Obligatory Star Trek joke)