With the universe being almost 14 billion years old I highly doubt we are "early bloomers". The earth is around 4.6 billion years old. Just think, there are probably many beings in the universe that are over a billion or more years more developed than us. Just think of how much more advanced another life form could be compared to us. The reason we can't find life is because the universe is HUGE. Other galaxies are so distant. Heck the next major galaxy (Andromeda) is 2.5 million light years away. That's just one of the estimated 100 billion galaxies in the universe. I love reading about the universe, but it's very overwhelming to realize just how small of a speck earth is.