Can We Guess If You Believe in Intelligent Extraterrestrial Life?
By: Ian Fortey
5 min
Image: Haiting Yu / Moment / Getty Images
About This Quiz
Have you ever heard of the Drake Equation? Sadly it has nothing to do with Drake the singer but everything to do with Frank Drake, a radio astronomer who was trying to figure out what the odds were on our ability to find and communicate with alien life. That sounds straightforward, right? Except that there are about a half dozen variables, none of which science can pin down. Long story short, there's no real answer for the Drake equation, and we have no idea what the odds are on ever contacting alien life. A big part of the reason is that we don't know if there is any extraterrestrial life to contact. It's hard to talk to someone who may or may not even exist.
The question of alien life doesn't have a lot of science behind it right now. Is there life out there? Is it intelligent? Some people are confident in the odds and assume that of course there must be life, just look at all the life on Earth alone! Others are not so convinced - there's nothing else in our solar system, and we haven't even found a planet that looks like it could sustain life. Maybe we're an anomaly. Maybe, maybe, maybe. So, which side of the coin are you on? Answer a few questions, and we'll guess what you think about finding intelligent life out there!
There is no end of stories featuring aliens. Which fictional aliens do you think are the most realistic?