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It’s interesting to see how much work people seem to think that framing the Drake equation as a “thought experiment” does. If it’s a thought experiment, stop c
by myfavoritedog 5y ago
It’s interesting to see how much work people seem to think that framing the Drake equation as a “thought experiment” does.
If it’s a thought experiment, stop calling it an “equation”. People hear that something is an equation and they think that there’s real math and science involved. Call it the “Drake Conjecture” or something.
- 8bitsrule 5y agoI think that when it was originated, it was close to being in the same condition the Schroedinger equation was when it was originated. He basically pulled it out of his ... thin air as well. It got attention because of its heuristic value - and 'felt right' (not a factor to be overlooked). To this day, as WP notes, 'It is typically not possible to solve the Schrödinger equation exactly for situations of physical interest.' Yet he got a Nobel prize for it. Frank used his equation to get us thinking about SETI, and SETI is now decades old. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger_equation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger_equation