(An old hat response that your comment still seems to warrant.)
The fact that we are still here reduces the surprise significantly. If intelligence did develop, we probably won’t be still here, and we know that we are. It’s not just an empty galaxy, it’s an empty galaxy where we live. It is not surprising in the same intuitive sense as observing the sequence 0101100100010 of coin flips is not surprising, once you take it as data you have (specification of which phenomenon you are dealing with) and not the property to be explained.
(An old hat response that your comment still seems to warrant.)
The fact that we are still here reduces the surprise significantly. If intelligence did develop, we probably won’t be still here, and we know that we are. It’s not just an empty galaxy, it’s an empty galaxy where we live. It is not surprising in the same intuitive sense as observing the sequence 0101100100010 of coin flips is not surprising, once you take it as data you have (specification of which phenomenon you are dealing with) and not the property to be explained.