space kid

viii

"hey luke, do you know what drake's equation is?"

"no, what is it?"

"it's the equation that calculates the amount of extraterrestrial civilizations there are in the milky way alone."

"what's the equation?"

"it's the average rate of star formation in our galaxy, times the fraction of those stars that actually have planets, times the average number of planets that can potentially support life per star has planets, times the fraction of planets that could support life that actually develop life at one point, times the fraction of planets with life that actually go on to develop intelligent life, times the fraction of civilizations that develop technology that releases detectable signs of their existence into space, times the length of time for which such civilizations release detectable signals into space."

"bro, i have no idea what you just said."

"i-it's okay, it's-it's really long and c-complex, and i get it."

"what's wrong?"

"i-i've gotta go. i'll s-see you later."