heehee... sorry for going skitzo in that last post. i didnt realise i sounded like such an ass at the start of it.
forgot to say... i laffed my torso off @ "They're scarier than a vampire wearing a zombie costume.....carrying a mummy."
anyways... heres the reason i'm doing that evilest of evil... the double post....
i have found the drake equation.
N=R*fs*fp*ne*fl*fi*fc*L
DRAKE EQUATION
The Drake equation is a formula for estimating the possible number of intelligent civilizations in our galaxy. Most of the terms in this equations are unknown. In the equation, N is the number of civilizations, R is the average rate of star formation in the galaxy (about 20 stars per year ), fs is the fraction of stars that are suitable (about 0.1), fp is the fraction of stars with planets (about 0.5), ne is the mean number of planets that are located in a "habitable zone," where water exists in liquid form, fl is the fraction of these planets on which any life form evolves, fi is the fraction of places where some the life becomes intelligent, fc is the fraction of intelligent species who could communicate with us, and L is the lifetime (in years) of a civilization (this is quite uncertain). The equation was formulated by radio astronomer </subjects/astronomy/glossary/Astronomers.shtml> Frank Drake in 1961.
Number of Intelligent civilizations = Rate of star formation in the galaxy * Fraction of systems without unsuitable Stars * fraction of Stars with Planets * Number of planets located in the Habitable zone * Fraction of planets on which single celled life form evolves * Fraction of Places where the life becomes intelligent * Fraction of intelligent species who could communicate with us * Lifetime of the species.
Digit's suggested revisions: more emphasis on Time and predicting how many species that are around at any one time in our solar system. One area requiring a greater degree of accuracy is perhaps the quantity L.
to find if they would visit us rather than just comunicate, it could be changed to encorporate aliens who have developed the ability to travel ftl which would replace fc and then re-encorporate some of the previous values of the equation to the latter part to find the likely hood that we would be on their list of places to visit.