The precise conditions required for life to arise are vanishingly rare, and sentient life impossibly so. Any expense in time, resources or labour to protect hypothetical xeno-life is therefore wasted, and the consequence of waste is to let the cosmos decay in stone. Against the blind chaos of nature, the enlightened order of mindkind must triumph through anthropogenic panspermia.
We are not insignificant. We can manipulate life to our own ends, and what power is that but the power of Gods?
We shall engineer life to consume the most abundant planetary materials, and to replicate as quickly as possible. Start life at every corner of our galactic arm, for the universe is dark, and cold, and unfeeling, and we can make it warm and full of life, forever.
ave Terra, ave vita, ave sapiencia!