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:lolol:

The Drake equation specifically addresses point 1. It’s a formula for guesstimating the number of “active” (alive now) civilisations. You’re right though - this particular term requires one to guess how long an intelligent life form exists for before ceasing to transmit (for whatever reason)...

Regrettably, yes. Mind you, the TV signal was so weak that by the time it gets anywhere where it could reasonably be thought there might be someone to pick it up, it’ll hopefully be so degraded that they’ll miss it...

Yep, I agree, for exactly the reason you cite.

In this context I was defining “intelligent” the same way as Drake does, ie those civilisations that are sufficiently technologically advanced that they have released detectable signals into space. By this definition, we became “intelligent” at around the time of the 1936 Berlin olympics.

Best estimate atm is 100-200 Billion galaxies... Every time I do the Drake equation, even using what to my mind are ridiculously small numbers, I come out with an estimate of thousands of intelligent life forms currently out there somewhere...