eling individual. Of course, it is possible t alien beingstravel billions of miles to amuse ting crop circles in iltsening ts out of some poor guy in a pickup truck on a lonely road in Arizona(t eenagers, after all), but it does seem unlikely.

    Still, statistically ty t t there is good.

    Nobody knoimates range from 100 billionor so to per one of 140 billion or so ot Cornell namedFrank Drake, excited by suc a famous equation designed tocalculate ties.

    Under Drake’s equation you divide tars in a selected portion of tars t are likely to ary systems; divide t by tary systems t could tically support life; divide t by to a state of intelligence; and so on. At eac even  conservative inputs tions just in t to be somewhemillions.

    an interesting and exciting t. e may be only one of millions of advancedcivilizations. Unfortunately, space being spacious, tance betions is reckoned to be at least t makes it sound. It means for a start t even if to see us in telescopes, tc t leftEartcion and tockings and poom is, or a gene, and y by rubbing a rodof amber ’s quite a trick. Any message o begin “Dear Sire,” and congratulate us on tery of ance so far beyond us as to be,  beyond us.

    So even if  really alone, in all practical terms ed ts in t large at 10 billion trillion—a number vastlybeyond imagining. But  of space tly scattered. “If ed into te, “t you  rillion trillion.” (t’s 1033, or a one folloy-three zeroes.) “orlds are precious.”

    is good ne in Februa