Please pardon my prejudice against Douglas Adams,

I have been a Science Fiction fan for a long time and I find that his expressed ideas to be mostly mocking of Science Fiction. It may be noted that the average is not zero, nor can it be as long as there is at least one populated planet.

I learned what decimal fractions were and what the word zero means at a very young age. Armed with that knowledge, I am prepared to say with some authority that Adams' claim that the average number of populated planets is "zero" is bullshit. No doubt it is clever bullshit. But it certainly is bullshit.

It is no doubt a small number. But since we live on a populated planet, it is not zero.