Difference between revisions of "384: The Drake Equation"
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For starters, the {{w|Drake equation}} is a model for estimating the number of communicating life forms in our galaxy. | For starters, the {{w|Drake equation}} is a model for estimating the number of communicating life forms in our galaxy. | ||
| − | Even if there are life on other planets, most life forms will not establish civilizations. | + | Even if there are life on other planets, most life forms will not establish civilizations. However, if there are any communicating civilizations, their messages would have to travel for hundreds, thousands, or hundreds of thousands of years to reach us, and then our response would take an equivalent amount of time, leaving them waiting for potentially millions of years for a response. |
| − | That | + | That is the reason why Randall also added the factor for the "Amount of bullshit you're willing to buy from Frank Drake". All the factors are difficult to measure or estimate, no number is determined with sufficient accuracy, so the equation is a guideline for a thought experiment at best, and just "bullshit" at worst. |
| − | The title text | + | The title text makes fun of the {{w|SETI|Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (SETI)}} project, which searches for intelligent life on other planets by looking for radio communications, and the intelligence of their researchers. Nearly nothing, if not nothing, restricts potential extraterrestrial communications to the frequencies that SETI searches at any given moment. Even if another civilization communicated on one of SETI's search frequencies, they would most likely live extremely far away. Additionally, an extraterrestrial source that doesn't know we're here would have to send a constant and powerful signal in all directions for us to notice it. No intelligent civilization would waste their time and effort on communicating with other races, since they would encounter trouble communicating with any civilizations they found. |
| − | The SETI project is searching at the 21 cm {{w|Hydrogen line}} which | + | The SETI project is searching at the 21 cm {{w|Hydrogen line}}, which, although considered a favorable frequency by potential extraterrestrial civilizations, is not used by humans. Therefore, a SETI-like organization would have a hard time finding earth. |
| − | The title text suggests Randall | + | The title text suggests Randall does not think Drake is a nutjob; he just has a more conservative expectation of discovering extraterrestrial life. |
==Transcript== | ==Transcript== | ||
| Line 31: | Line 31: | ||
==Trivia== | ==Trivia== | ||
| − | *Another comic | + | *Another comic, [[718: The Flake Equation]] also parodies the same equation. |
{{comic discussion}} | {{comic discussion}} | ||
[[Category:Comics with color]] | [[Category:Comics with color]] | ||
Revision as of 22:18, 30 May 2014
| The Drake Equation |
 Title text: But seriously, there's loads of intelligent life. It's just not screaming constantly in all directions on the handful of frequencies we search. |
Explanation
This comic is multi-layered, and seems to be Randall's take on the Fermi paradox.
For starters, the Drake equation is a model for estimating the number of communicating life forms in our galaxy.
Even if there are life on other planets, most life forms will not establish civilizations. However, if there are any communicating civilizations, their messages would have to travel for hundreds, thousands, or hundreds of thousands of years to reach us, and then our response would take an equivalent amount of time, leaving them waiting for potentially millions of years for a response.
That is the reason why Randall also added the factor for the "Amount of bullshit you're willing to buy from Frank Drake". All the factors are difficult to measure or estimate, no number is determined with sufficient accuracy, so the equation is a guideline for a thought experiment at best, and just "bullshit" at worst.
The title text makes fun of the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project, which searches for intelligent life on other planets by looking for radio communications, and the intelligence of their researchers. Nearly nothing, if not nothing, restricts potential extraterrestrial communications to the frequencies that SETI searches at any given moment. Even if another civilization communicated on one of SETI's search frequencies, they would most likely live extremely far away. Additionally, an extraterrestrial source that doesn't know we're here would have to send a constant and powerful signal in all directions for us to notice it. No intelligent civilization would waste their time and effort on communicating with other races, since they would encounter trouble communicating with any civilizations they found.
The SETI project is searching at the 21 cm Hydrogen line, which, although considered a favorable frequency by potential extraterrestrial civilizations, is not used by humans. Therefore, a SETI-like organization would have a hard time finding earth.
The title text suggests Randall does not think Drake is a nutjob; he just has a more conservative expectation of discovering extraterrestrial life.
Transcript
- The Drake Equation:
- N = R * fp ne fl fi fc L Bs
- N: Number of communicating civilizations in our galaxy
- ne: Number of life-supporting planets per solar system
- fi: Probability that life on a planet becomes intelligent
- Bs: Amount of bullshit you're willing to buy from Frank Drake
Trivia
- Another comic, 718: The Flake Equation also parodies the same equation.
add a comment! ⋅ add a topic (use sparingly)! ⋅ 
refresh comments!Discussion
Looks like someone mixed up Frank Drake and Francis Drake --Btx40 (talk) 14:32, 19 February 2013 (UTC)
Bs looks more like B6 162.158.79.185 17:03, 13 March 2019 (UTC)
The title text shows a lack of imagination about how aliens could communicate. It need not be that they're using narrow direction and different bands. First, they could be using radio in a way that wouldn't be detected, much as how no WWII radio expert would recognize modern, digital, encoded cell tower transmissions. Second, there may be other means of communicating over distance, like entangled particles. —Kazvorpal (talk) 07:50, 10 November 2019 (UTC)
Alternate solution factor: N= [stuff already mentioned]^["probability" that there is not a God who, if He exists, perhaps made this universe so that there would be no process where beings like us could come from the dust of a planet by natural means.] Yeah, it does depend on one's bias and worldview. 172.70.130.91 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
