The probably of there being life outside of Earth is likely non-zero. The probability of us ever encountering it is effectively zero though. Space is too big for anything to travel around it.
Even light/radio has a signal-to-noise problem. You need a supernova-sized signal source, at least. (And then you have the problem of modulating a supernova...)
or maybe what there is likely never makes it past the microbial stage? As we go up the food chain, entropy gets so much higher, with as many things that can go wrong as can go right. Look at the fossil record, most higher life forms either adapt (dinosaurs becoming smaller birds) or die
