It's pretty obvious that on the balance of probabilities, other life forms must exist elsewhere in the Universe and also in our own Galaxy where we can see about four new stars being born every year.

Far from there being "nothing", there is an awful lot of something out there.

Therfore, it's logical to assume that we are not alone but how far away our nearest neighbours are how how "advanced" they are is something open to conjecture until we make contact.