From: Michael Lorrey (retroman@tpk.net)
Date: Sun Feb 09 1997 - 11:20:00 MST
Jim Legg wrote:
>
> Bipedalism:
> -------------
>
> I recall an article from probably the National Geographic or perhaps the
> Scientific American in the early eighties concerning a formula that
> predicted a 175% chance of intelligent life per galaxy. The man's name I
> can only recall as a Da...??*. This formula had about 12 factors and
> possibly factor 6 was bipedalism. I recall bipedalism was suggested as
> being due to sexual attraction caused by the face-to-face sex position, the
> purpose of which was selection, longevity and the need for future planning.
>
The problem with the estimate of only 175% chance of one intelligent
race per galaxy is that it relied on assumptions of the values of the
different factors in the equation (which you can find in Sagan's book,
Cosmos). Recently I had heard of this same gentleman plugging in new
assumptions based on data learned in the 25+ years since he formulated
this algorithm. He then came up with at least one intelligent race every
40-60 light years. I would be interested in seeing what the new data on
extrasolar planets does to this estmate.
--
TANSTAAFL!!!
Michael Lorrey
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#!/usr/local/bin/perl-0777---export-a-crypto-system-sig-RC4-3-lines-PERL
@k=unpack('C*',pack('H*',shift));for(@t=@s=0..255){$y=($k[$_%@k]+$s[$x=$_
]+$y)%256;&S}$x=$y=0;for(unpack('C*',<>)){$x++;$y=($s[$x%=256]+$y)%256;
&S;print pack(C,$_^=$s[($s[$x]+$s[$y])%256])}sub S{@s[$x,$y]=@s[$y,$x]}
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