I think the probability of other life being out there is very good - darn near guaranteed. I also think that with the pace of change and base of technology (and all knowledge) continuing to grow at an ever-increasing rate, 1,000 years is a very long time (in terms of how extrememly different the world will be). Think of how much the human experience fundamentally changed between say 100 and 150 a.d., or even 1800 and 1850. Now think of 1950 to 2000. I'd bet there will be more knowledge accumulated in the 10 years between 2090 and 2100 than their was in the 2,000 years from 1 a.d. to 2000.

That being said, the Universe is a big place; really, really big. So big that life could be relatively common yet separated by such large average distances as to never connect. I hope that is not the case. It would be so cool to be around when contact is made.

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Don of Borg - Cool, Calm, Collective.

"Within the next generation I believe that the world's leaders will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley