# Have we reached the point when it is kooky to not believe in massive amounts of intelligent life having evolved throughout the universe? **URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-we-reached-the-point-when-it-is-kooky-to-not-believe-in-massive-amounts-of-intelligent-life-having-evolved-throughout-the-universe/969972 **Category:** Great Debates **Created:** [August 19, 2022, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-we-reached-the-point-when-it-is-kooky-to-not-believe-in-massive-amounts-of-intelligent-life-having-evolved-throughout-the-universe/969972 "2022-08-19T23:30:48Z") **Posts on this page:** 1 **Showing post:** 762
### Author: ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool) #### Post date: [July 11, 2026, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-we-reached-the-point-when-it-is-kooky-to-not-believe-in-massive-amounts-of-intelligent-life-having-evolved-throughout-the-universe/969972/762 "2026-07-11T13:18:11Z")
Offspring thread this morning about the Drake Equation: > [@What bottlenecks would you consider for the drake equation that prevent the development of intelligent, technologically advanced life](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-bottlenecks-would-you-consider-for-the-drake-equation-that-prevent-the-development-of-intelligent-technologically-advanced-life/1031581): > > As a spinoff of [this thread](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-we-reached-the-point-when-it-is-kooky-to-not-believe-in-massive-amounts-of-intelligent-life-having-evolved-throughout-the-universe/969972), what would you consider to be bottlenecks that prevent intelligent, technologically advanced life forms from evolving? There are roughly 10^24 planets in the universe. But if you keep adding bottlenecks (only 10% pass this bottleneck, only 1% pass this bottleneck, only 15% pass this bottleneck) then after you have a couple dozen bottlenecks, you end up with only one planet in the known universe that can support intelligent life. So my understanding of various bottl… --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-we-reached-the-point-when-it-is-kooky-to-not-believe-in-massive-amounts-of-intelligent-life-having-evolved-throughout-the-universe/969972)._