GP complains that the Drake Equation parameters are essentially unknowable to us. (I agree firmly.) Attempts to say "the product is non-negligible" are therefore folly - even if one of the factors increases by orders of magnitude. The factors are, after all, bounded by 1.
Fermi's Paradox tells us that IFF the product is not inconsequentially small, there is a problem. But we have no way of knowing that condition is true, and may never be able to know.
Fermi's Paradox tells us that IFF the product is not inconsequentially small, there is a problem. But we have no way of knowing that condition is true, and may never be able to know.