Ever heard of the Fermi paradox? This phenomenon is named after the Italian physicist Enrico Fermi, and concerns the fact that though we’ve found no empirical evidence of extraterrestrial life, standard calculations based on our learned knowledge of the universe suggest that the probability of life elsewhere in our galaxy is very high. The theoretical side of the paradox is usually based on some variation of the Drake equation, which takes various known or estimated constants – like the number of observed stars in our galaxy, the estimated average number of planets per star, the proportion of these that are likely to be able to support life, and so on – and feeds them into an equation which calculates the expected number of alien civilisations in our galaxy.
Though there’s a lot of uncertainty about the numbers that feed into Drake’s equation, best estimates lead to an answer that suggests there should be millions of civilisations out there somewhere. And Fermi’s paradox points to the contrast between this number and the zero civilisations that we’ve actually observed.
Anyway, rather than try to go through any of this in greater detail, I thought I’d let this video do the explaining. And for fun, they suggest using the same technique to calculate the chances of you finding someone you are compatible with as a love partner.
Now, you probably don’t need me to explain all the limitations in this methodology, either for the evidence of alien life or for potential love partners with whom you are compatible. Though of course, the application to finding love partners is just for fun, right?
Well, yes and no. Here’s Rachel Riley of Countdown fame doing a barely-disguised publicity for eHarmony.
She uses pretty much the same methodology to show that you have…
… a 1 in 562 chance of finding love.
Rachel also gives some advice to help you improve those odds. First up:
… get to know your colleagues
<Smartodds!!! I know!!!>
But it’s maybe not as bad as it sounds; she’s suggesting your colleagues might have suitable friends for you to pair up with, rather than your colleagues being potential love-partners themselves.
Finally, I’ll let you think about whether the methodology and assumptions used in Rachel’s calculations make sense or not. And maybe even try to understand what the 1 in 562 answer actually means, especially as a much higher proportion of people actually do end up in relationships. The opposite of Fermi’s paradox!
