This topic came up in the human/canine breeding thread. I don't even remember now how it came up, lol! But this is a really good summary of the basic premise that complex/technological life may be extremely rare in the universe, and how we can come to this conclusion despite limited scientific resources.
Note the second half of this article which describes how in fact, we have a superior vantage point for drawing conclusions which apply on a cosmological scale and even backward and forward in time - and how odd it is that the circumstances of our location in time and space that lead to superior observational ability, are also the precise circumstances that just happen to make our location in time and space habitable and conducive for technological development and discovery.
http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=view&id=2143
I won't have time this week for an online discussion, as we are shearing, but if anyone wants to discuss via e-mail, I'd be more than happy to make time.