| Personal background |
|---|
| I am from Redmond, WA. I am a student at the local high school in 11th grade (as of 5/14/03). My hobbies include building, operating, playing on, (and other exciting action verbs) computers. I am currently running SETI@home on two computers, but trying to work it out on a third which runs Linux. Yep, thats me. |
| Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home |
|---|
In this short essay type explanation, I will prove to even the most absolute pessimist that there is other communicating life in this universe.
According to the Drake equation,
N = R* • fs • fp • ne • fl • fi • fc • L
N = The number of communicating civilizations in The Milky Way Galaxy
R* = The rate of formation of stars suitable for the development of intelligent life.
fp = The fraction of those stars with planetary systems.
ne = The number of planets, per solar system, with an environment suitable for life.
fl = The fraction of suitable planets on which life actually appears.
fi = The fraction of life bearing planets on which intelligent life emerges.
fc = The fraction of civilizations that develop a technology that releases detectable signs of their existence into space.
L = The length of time such civilizations release detectable signals into space.
My values:
R*=10
fp=1/3
ne=3
fl=1
fi=2/5
fc=1/5
L=2000
With this you get 1600 communicating civilizations. You may say "those numbers are too high!" However, if we use the extremely pessimistic numbers
R*=1
fp=1/5
ne=1
fl=1/2
fi=1/10
fc=1/7
L=1500
we get 2 civilizations (these numbers are lower than the lowest of the low assumptions). If we figure that there are about 80 billion galaxies in the universe (which is the number that the Hubble Telescope is capable of seeing), then even if one fourth of them had even one communication civilization, then there are about 20 billion communication civilizations in this universe.
It is so unlikely that we are the only people in this universe that you would have to roll a 6 sided dice 13 times in a row and get a 1 every time to simulate the chances of us being the only communicating civilization. It may sound easy, but the chances of doing so are 1 in 13,060,694,016 (which is actually easier to get than 1 in 20,000,000,000).
Therefore, there is communicating life in this universe. The only question is will we detect it? |
| Your feedback on this profile |
|---|
| Recommend this profile for User of the Day: |
I like this profile |
| Alert administrators to an offensive profile: |
I do not like this profile |
|
|
