Only if it had evolved independently during this step. Which is not certain either because we know big asteroid impacts can transfer material to other planets.

Only if it had evolved independently during this step. Which is not certain either because we know big asteroid impacts can transfer material to other planets. But I think the whole Fermi Paradox is a bit chauvinistic. It's assuming all life is like us, and ending in a colonisation explosion. Like our way is the only possible way. Maybe other aliens do manage to reach a balance with their environment instead of screwing it all up like we are doing? After all, never-ending growth is simply impossible. It always reminds me of Agent Smith's speech from the matrix :) But we as humanity have a habit of defining things around us in our own terms. We thought earth had to be the centre of the universe. Perhaps here we're also wrong and most life is just not like us?