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Nornagest comments on The Octopus, the Dolphin and Us: a Great Filter tale - Less Wrong
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Do you have any candidates for these features? Because there are two ways of seeing your argument: a) There are some very rare features (like the moon) that are necessary for life. This makes intelligent life very rare. b) There are some features that Earth has that are necessary for life, and Earth is one of the earliest planets with these features.
a) explains the Fermi paradox by rarity of intelligence, while b) explains it by saying the first intelligence will expand and prevent other from developing independently. But b) requires that we guess what these features could be.
Large moons are rare, but very rare? The Pluto/Charon system is even more extreme than the Earth/Moon in that respect, although obviously it formed under different conditions.
Well, one unusual feature of Earth are the hybrid solar eclipses, caused by the sun and moon having the same apparent diameter. Seems like an extraordinary coincidence that Earth should have this feature in the exact epoch when intelligent life evolved.
Good point; lottery-low odds are inadequate to explain the paradox. Literally astronomical odds against a feature of Earth would be required.
"Has been observed to not have a large moon" is not something that we can say about 99% of observed planets.