&gt; Sad? I don&#x27;t see anyone crying.<p>Most of the world is crying -- we&#x27;re dying of a thousand different wounds, and science, what was supposed to be our greatest hope, has become a sort of masturbatory worship of safe data.  It&#x27;s lost direction.<p>Rather than working on real, hard problems they&#x27;re arguing about escapist nonsense.<p>The only way the Drake equation gives high answers for our chances of contacting aliens is if you put in absurdly high values for ne through L.  Sure, there are aliens, but they are tens of millions of lightyears away. FTL travel and communication will only ever be fantasy. You will not meet them, get over it.