Upvote. The Drake Equation and SETI seem at least as relevant as, say, Pascal's Mugging. GIGO, sure, but a standard dismissal in statistics is to say there's not enough data, more research needed. Isn't this where Bayes is supposed to win over frequentism, when it comes to imperfect or incomplete information?

Babyeater FAI would be very different, but could still give us big hints on how to make human FAI. It's the standard science process, instead of reinventing the wheel, stand on the shoulders of giants and learn what other smart people who've come before have figured out.