The steps don't have to be that hard for us to be unique.
There are 10^22 to 10^24 stars in the Universe (a big range of uncertainty there but it doesn't matter for this point). That sounds like a lot but anyone with knowledge of combinatronics would immediately say holy shit that's a small number. Cryptography buffs are probably looking at that going "that can't be right, it's a tiny number", you divide it by 10 repeatedly, 24 times in fact and you're down to nothing. 24 not-at-all 'hard' steps and we're probably alone.
You've probably heard "there's soooo many stars in the universe there has to be other life out there". There really isn't that many in terms of probability.
There are 10^22 to 10^24 stars in the Universe (a big range of uncertainty there but it doesn't matter for this point). That sounds like a lot but anyone with knowledge of combinatronics would immediately say holy shit that's a small number. Cryptography buffs are probably looking at that going "that can't be right, it's a tiny number", you divide it by 10 repeatedly, 24 times in fact and you're down to nothing. 24 not-at-all 'hard' steps and we're probably alone.
You've probably heard "there's soooo many stars in the universe there has to be other life out there". There really isn't that many in terms of probability.