Origin of Whedon 'sentient beings' quote

POSTED BY: JeffQ
UPDATED: Friday, July 22, 2005 16:43
VIEWED: 3739
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DANFAN

Friday, July 22, 2005 12:54 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by AURaptor:
the Drake Equation -

N = R* fp ne fl fi fc L

The equation is probably a pretty good model for determining (statistically) how crowded our skies might be. I'm sure that's why scientists generally accept the equation.

Alas, the values entered for 5 of the 7 parameters in the right side of that equation are what we in engineering call "Wild Assed Guesses" or WAGs. Which means the answer you get from the equation is a direct result of whatever largely unsubstantiated beliefs you feed into it from the front end. The only experience we have to feed into those 5 parameters comes from a statistical examination of a set of planets containing... one planet.

I really do want us to have company out there. I tend to interpret Joss' statement as others in this thread have... over the next half millenia, the odds of us finding another sentient species within our reach are probably low. So he would prefer to ignore that remote possibility and focus on people stories.

GROUNDED

Friday, July 22, 2005 4:43 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Pan:
I'm sorry if you felt insulted. Having re-read my post, I've realised why you may have felt that way, but I really didn't mean it to sound like that.

Read "Deep Future", and then we'll talk some more.

It's no problem. Deep Future is my next buy :)

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