Sadly this is something I've begun to believe is true. While life has seemingly been around for a long time on Earth, only the last eighth of it has been intelligent life. Of the four billion years of life even simple sea life didn't begin until the "Cambrian explosion" only a half billion years ago. Before that there weren't even plants on the planet. It was barren rock all across. You'd only find life with a microscope.

Also, while the SETI enthusiasts will say we've barely begun to search the sky for signals the fact of the matter is that we've been listening (at least indirectly) for decades now. At the very least there's no low hanging fruit on the tree of ET civilizations.

We may be the first. We may be the only. And as Sagan would say it really does seem like a waste of space.