simon conway morris, heretic...

     We find this on page xiii of Life's Solution, by one Simon Conway Morris: 'There is, however, a paradox. If we, in a sense, are evolutionarily inevitable, as too are animals with compound eyes or tiny organelles that make hydrogen, then where are our equivalents, out there, across the galaxy? . . . To paraphrase much of this book, life may be a universal principle, but we can still be alone. In other words, once you are on the path it is pretty straightforward, but finding a suitable planet and maybe getting the right recipe for life's origination could be exceedingly difficult: inevitable humans in a lonely Universe. Now, if this happens to be the case, that i turn might be telling us something very interesting indeed. Either we are a cosmic accident, without either meaning or purpose, or alternatively ...'
     It indeed trails off, that isn't an ellipsis of omission. If you know anything about the good paleontologist, you will know the significance of that ellipsis. (Let's just say that it's enough to drive some folks to distraction.) If you don't know anything about the good paleontologist, then his department faculty page is a good place to start.