The Marginalian
The Marginalian

The Math of Love: Calculating the Odds of Finding Your Soulmate

Since the dawn of recorded history, poets and philosophers have pondered the nature of love and, in recent times, so have scientists. But can the concrete lens of science really be applied to something as seemingly abstract and amorphous as amore? Joe Hanson, mastermind of the wonderful science-plus compendium It’s Okay To Be Smart, has a new online show in partnership with PBS and the latest episode explores what the search for extraterrestrial life can teach us about our odds of finding that much-romanticized human soulmate, using the Fermi paradox, the Drake equation, and a lesson in love from Carl Sagan — who, with his timelessly magnificent Golden Record love story, should know a thing or two about the wisdom of the heart.

Joe ends with a beautiful quote from Sagan’s 1985 debut novel, Contact:

For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.


Published February 12, 2013

https://www.themarginalian.org/2013/02/12/the-math-of-love/

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