When first stars appeared they were made out of hydrogen. It seems that you have to wait for second or third generation stars (formed from rests of previous def

When first stars appeared they were made out of hydrogen. It seems that you have to wait for second or third generation stars (formed from rests of previous defunct stars) in order to have heavy elements that would form planets and allow life. We could be the first, or one of the first civilizations in the galaxy. Trouble with the equation is that it does make nobody happy. As we are knowing better some factors (like how many stars have planets) it seems that life should be everywhere. But it's enough that one the still unknown unknowns is worse than we think, to make the density as low as a few dozen civilizations in the galaxy. That's too far for us to communicate in a 10.000 years scale. BTW, I find this 10.000 number is cruft from cold war era. Some people love the extintion idea, not sure why.