I found I could reduce the whole agenda for the meeting to a single line [the Drake equation]. Of course, I didn’t have real values for most of the factors. But I did have a compelling equation that summarized the topics to be discussed.
1564 - 1616
1803 – 1882
1854 – 1900
1942 – 2016
1928 – 2014
1835 – 1910
1869 – 1948
1884 – 1962
1898 – 1963
1929 – 1993
1879 – 1955
1809 – 1865