The alien hypothesis?

[David Gentle]

> Actually, "Science" does seem to spend an awful lot of time (and money)  
> investigating whether Mars could support, or has supported, organic  
> life and so forth. I'd imagine that the probability of the existence of  
> "life" elsewhere in the universe could be calculated scientiffically,  
> i.e. via some sort of equation where the expanse of the known universe  
> is moderated against the likelihood of environmental and chemical  
> conditions needed to generate and sustain "life" manifesting  
> spontaneously. I suspect that the odds would be quite good.  
> Hypothetically-speaking, that is.
> 
> As to "intelligent life" or UFOs, well, that'd be a separate equation.  
> Or a derivative of the first. But the concept of "intelligent life" is  
> problematic in that it's another one of those self-defining systems or  
> semantic constructs. And, coming at it from another perspective, it's a  
> little but egotistical, if not downright solipsistic, to assume for  
> oneself the mantle of supreme being in all of existence.
The Drake equation:
N=R* x fp x ne x fl x fi x fc xL
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation   for what it all means.

David Gentle