For decades, the question of whether we are alone in the universe has captivated scientists and the public alike. Theories have ranged from the bleak "rare Earth" hypothesis, portraying human existence as a cosmic fluke, to optimistic projections of teeming alien civilisations. Now, a groundbreaking new study from the University of Munich is offering a fresh perspective, suggesting that the emergence of intelligent life might be less about lucky accidents and more about predictable geological processes unfolding over vast stretches of time. A.I. Image: Icy World The research, spearheaded by Dan Mills, challenges the conventional wisdom that intelligent life requires a series of extraordinarily improbable evolutionary events – often referred to as the "hard steps" theory. It also presents an alternative to Brandon Carter's controversial idea that human life is a rare and perhaps unique occurrence. Instead, the Munich study proposes that when planetary condition...