Science strictly practiced is an attempt to ultimatley bring theory and fact into agreement. That can only be achieved by testing and a search for confirmation or falsification.

Having said that, please tell me how the Drake E can be anything but abstract speculation at best.

Should we just "do the math" to prove it?
Thats would be circular reasoning would it not?

It's abstract speculation, not science. Fun and useful abstract speculation, since it causes us to ask questions, and helps to form hypotheses to test. If you're uptight about categorizing it to ensure it doesn't falsely masquerade as science, you can call it philosophy.

It's abstract speculation, not science. Fun and useful abstract speculation, since it causes us to ask questions, and helps to form hypotheses to test.

Oh is that what you call it? I thought most of us here thought it was science?

How does this abstract speculation of exo planets hosting life lead to a testable hypothesis?
Do you think it will eventually lead to testability?
You're an evidence guy.., what evidence do you have to make that claim?
Or is this another one of your faith disguised as "confidence" moments?

Oh is that what you call it? I thought most of us here thought it was science?

How does this abstract speculation of exo planets hosting life lead to a testable hypothesis?
Do you think it will eventually lead to testability?
You're an evidence guy.., what evidence do you have to make that claim?
Or is this another one of your faith disguised as "confidence" moments?

Ha! Why are you pretending to grill me on this? I was speculating that it was speculation. I'm not even sure what the Drake equation is! Go ahead and tear that apart ant, you bulldog!

Interbane wrote:

Oh is that what you call it? I thought most of us here thought it was science?

How does this abstract speculation of exo planets hosting life lead to a testable hypothesis?
Do you think it will eventually lead to testability?
You're an evidence guy.., what evidence do you have to make that claim?
Or is this another one of your faith disguised as "confidence" moments?

Ha! Why are you pretending to grill me on this? I was speculating that it was speculation. I'm not even sure what the Drake equation is! Go ahead and tear that apart ant, you bulldog!

Right.

I like to speculate that Exo Planets might have unicorns and fairies.
It's totally reasonably scientific if we plug in the symbols for unicorns and fairies into the equation.

I think it is a little narrow to assume that any sort of intelligent life out there is necessarily interested in contact with us. We tend to project our values outwards, as for us, this topic seems interesting and important. But when we just look at the diversity of life on this planet, we can visualize how potentially it could be even more vastly different in the cosmos. We evolved as simian tribes, pushed to survive on the African savannah. Other forms of sentient life may have a completely different story, along with vastly distinct approaches to things like curiosity, social bonding, empathy, urges to explore, etc.

And given the time spans involved, many alien life forms could have evolved far beyond the point of being motivated to open communication with us. This may seem hard to accept, as we are at the apex of intelligence on earth, but for other beings we might be a modest repeat of something seen a million times before. Incidentally, sci-fi author Stanislaw Lem covered this topic in his book Golem 14.

I like to speculate that Exo Planets might have unicorns and fairies.

It's your right to speculate what you wish. Unicorns and fairies would likely appear normal against the backdrop of other potential lifeforms. I'd like to see some monstrous Cthulian space whales that drop their seed onto planets.

Interbane wrote:

I like to speculate that Exo Planets might have unicorns and fairies.

It's your right to speculate what you wish. Unicorns and fairies would likely appear normal against the backdrop of other potential lifeforms. I'd like to see some monstrous Cthulian space whales that drop their seed onto planets.

Your speculation about life on Exo Planets very different from ours sounds delusional.
You must believe in God because you are going well beyond the empirical standards of Science.

You must believe in God because you are going well beyond the empirical standards of Science.

Flawless logic.