[Crazykz]

Not sure what you are getting at there.

Can you give an example of how they might be?

Or are you meaning inserting extra steps, and combining others, as Martin suggested?

what I mean is that the DE is a simple string of associative factors... what if the relationship between the parameters isn't associative.

[drislerfottor]

Wikipedia states that the Drake Equation Estimates the number of detectable ET civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy. AFAIAW it is often presented as an estimate of the chances of life arising in the universe.

Why is Wikipedia so specific; ie confined to our galaxy and "detectable"?

[Cydayshosse]

Wikipedia states that the Drake Equation Estimates the number of detectable ET civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy. AFAIAW it is often presented as an estimate of the chances of life arising in the universe.

Why is Wikipedia so specific; ie confined to our galaxy and "detectable"?

Edit: inb4 that tedious nonsense that is whatshisnames schtick "Wikipedia says this because someone entered that information in to wikipedias data base".

[Lymnempomma]

Numbers numbers numbers..It's all about numbers.
Taking the reverse position and using an analogy, if I bought a ticket in a lottery, I have a greater chance of winning if only 10 are sold then if they sold a million....and if they sold 1 ticket I'm 100% sure of winning.
The last example is analogious to an infinite Universe...In an infinite Universe life elsewhere would be sure to exist...the larger the Universe the greater the chances, taking into account that all the elements here are the same as the elements over there...and the raw stuff of life is everywhere we look.


Time and Distance are what separates us from other potential life bearing planets.

[Belindanan]

http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclo...I_science.html

...According to the Drake Equation, the number of civilizations that might be sending us messages was the product of the rate of star formation, the percentage of stars that form planets, the percentage of those hospitable to life, the percentage of those on which life actually emerges, the percentage of those on which life evolves to become intelligent life, the percentage of those capable of interstellar communication, and the longevity of such civilizations. It is often written as follows:

N = R* fp ne fl fi fc L

Despite its central importance to SETI, the Drake Equation was not the product of studied reflection. As Drake recalled, "I thought we should organize the meeting, and that caused me simply to think about what we needed to discuss – there was not a great deal of profound thought or anything involved in putting it together."12 Even more striking than the casualness with which Drake constructed his equation was the boldness of the conferees' probability estimates for each of its seven variables....