Ok, you can say that the sample size is the number of planets, but there’s only 1 trial. EDIT: If you go through the factors, only the first three even make s

Ok, you can say that the sample size is the number of planets, but there’s only 1 trial. EDIT: If you go through the factors, only the first three even make sense to talk about. And the third, about "number of planets per star that can potentially support life" can only be discussed in terms of our particular form of life. We have no idea at all what other types of life there could be, much less under what conditions that might happen. The others are completely unknowable. For example: f_i: The fraction of planets with life that actually go on to develop intelligent life (civilizations)" I'm embarrassed even writing it out. How can anyone even start to think that they could come even with 10 orders of magnitude of the right answer, if it's even a well defined probability, which I doubt. We know of exactly one planet with life, and it has intelligent life that emits radio waves. Is that an inevitability, or a one in a trillion fluke? But what bother me the most is how you even think you can talk about probabilities when there's only one trial, and for the later factors, the sample size is most definitely 1. It's just inane.