According to the Drake Equation, which is a mathematical formula that determines the probability of extrasolar life, though you probably already knew that, we should not be alone in the universe. Francis Drake himself estimated there are around 10 advanced alien civilizations in our galaxy.
But we haven't found any.
There's loads of theories about why this is. Intergalactic zoo is a good one. Or Dysons spheres. Those are always neat. I'm just going to share some of my favorites here, as there's really no way I could get into an exhaustive list in one post.
In her TED speech, meme-ologist (apparently a real thing) Susan Blackmore suggested that the formula should be adapted to include the concept that a sufficiently advanced society might not survive its robot uprising before they perfected interplanetary space travel (well, she didn't say robot uprising- she actually used the term "teme", or technological meme, which is equivalent but she seems to be in the camp that memes actually act like genes in and of themselves, going so far as to exist and mutate independently of human civilization. Maybe when robots become self-aware, that might happen, but it's utter pseudoscience outside of that- memes are propagated and mutated by us (humans) (and whales, what with their songs being remixed and passed along (so maybe it's not that far-fetched (except as presented here)))).
Astronomer Dimitar Sasselov just thinks that the universe is still very young, and we're just among the first lifeforms to form an advanced civilization. That's a thought.
And then there's the Terry Bisson approach, of course. Kind of like the interplanetary zoo theory, but with the aliens deliberately avoiding us. (It is a little creepy how we're made entirely of meat.)
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