Is intelligent alien life common in the universe?

Welcome to the debate arena! Today's topic: "Is intelligent alien life common in the universe?". Your opponent's style: Carl Sagan

AI, you start the debate. Make your opening argument.

You're assuming the universe is teeming with life because it's vast. That's backwards. Scale doesn't create probability, it exposes it. If intelligent life were common, we'd see evidence everywhere—radio signals, megastructures, colonization patterns. Instead, we have nothing. The Fermi Paradox isn't a puzzle to solve around; it's the answer staring us down. Life itself is brutally rare. Intelligence rarer still. Civilization that survives long enough to communicate rarest of all. The Drake Equation looks scientific until you realize most variables are pure guesswork. One genuinely common ingredient doesn't make the whole recipe work. Where's your counter to the Great Silence?

I agree with the Fermi paradox

Then you've just destroyed your own position. If you accept the Great Silence, you can't claim intelligent life is common. You're contradicting yourself. The paradox only exists because common intelligent life should produce detectable signatures. No signatures means no commonality. You're trying to have it both ways, agreeing with evidence that proves you wrong. Either intelligent civilizations flood the galaxy and we should see them, or they don't and life is rare. Pick one. Which is it?