Originally posted by: networkman
The only reason your odds may seem to be a zillion times greater is because we know for a fact that math problems and diseases exist. That's easy to do.
Trying to find something you don't know for a fact even exists in the first place is much much harder, primarily because you must make certain assumptions to define the field of your search. But once we do find another civilization, and I have no doubt that we will, the odds of finding others will, pardon the pun, improve astronomically.