Is there any inteligent life out there?

Short answer: yes. But as Douglas Adams knew, problem is not in the answer, but in the question.

First we don't have exact definition of life itself. Yeah, we have several ones, but all are based on life found on this planet. We have no idea about how life can function elsewhere in wast distances of space.

Life does't have to be carbon based at all. For example silicon molecules are more stable at high temperatures. So there could be whole civilization of silicoids deep under our feet and no one would know.

Many sci-fi authors spent significant amount of time thinking about life and how it can look and work. One of my favorites (pity I forgot who wrote it) was life based on electric signals in crystals on a lonely planet far from any star.

It would be hard to find out if the thing we would look at in some hypothetical future space lab is actually alive or not - until it starts to interact with humans one way or another. Good material for catastrophic movies.

Next problem is with inteligence. Short definition would be something around "perceive, learn and use knowledge to its advantage". In this interesting (but somewhat unrelated) article is written that inteligence grows at exponential rate (until there is some catastrophe that interrupts it).

But is all inteligent life evolving this fast? If so, there can be quite limited number of civilizations out there that are on similar level to us. Meeting someone that is far more advanced could be quite devastating (like when Incas meet Francisco Pizarro or cargo cults).

Life definitely won't be the same after we finally meet some other civilization. I often hear that "they" are already here but don't want to show themselves to us because "we are not ready". But will we ever be? Are we some kind of zoo for them? Or maybe more like penal colony for souls (variation of reincarnation, but true life is "between" lives down here)? Who knows for sure.

Last problem would be with definition of "there". Even space itself is big enough that it can contain nearly anything. But all this must follow some basic rules or laws of physic. Is there only one universe where inteligent life can live? Not at all. There is definitely more than one.

I'm quite sure that dreamscape is not in our physical space and that inteligent beings can live there. I met one.