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Originally Posted by Buffy
...300 to 500 stars with intelligent life around...
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A problem with the predictions of the Drake equation is that they are predicated on an assumption that biology tends to evolve intelligent life – in a sense, that the
purpose of biology is to produce intelligence.
It’s possible that this is true, but far from certain, or even reasonably likely.
Arthur C Clarke – who’s fiction (the Rama series, in particular) proselytize for this assumption - recently wrote an essay questioning it, and predicting that extraterrestrial life will be found to be ubiquitous, but almost without exception very energetically efficient and very dumb.
At present, our ability to speculate outstrips our ability to confirm these speculations to a maddening degree.
