I heard an interesting counterpoint to the Fermi paradox recently: namely, that the first life form able to spread self-replicating robots (or whatever) to the

I heard an interesting counterpoint to the Fermi paradox recently: namely, that the first life form able to spread self-replicating robots (or whatever) to the stars will take over a galaxy so relatively rapidly, that a new intelligent species is pretty much guaranteed to wake up either to a completely empty sky, or a completely full one. It's a little like the anthropic principle in reverse. I don't know that I buy it wholesale, but it does cast the improbability that we are first in our galaxy in a whole new light.