> Even pessimistic answers to those questions turn into optimistic projections given the scale of the universe. I used to believe this too, but the universe is

> Even pessimistic answers to those questions turn into optimistic projections given the scale of the universe. I used to believe this too, but the universe is not actually that big -- taking some not-so-conservative estimates, let's say there are a trillion galaxies, each with a trillion stars. If a couple of the terms in the Drake equation turn out to be 1-in-a-trillion, the odds of finding intelligent life no longer look so good.