  The data recently accumulated by the Kepler mission have demonstrated that
small planets are quite common and that a significant fraction of all stars may
have an Earth-like planet within their Habitable Zone. These results are
combined with a Drake-equation formalism to derive the space density of biotic
planets as a function of the relatively modest uncertainty in the astronomical
data and of the (yet unknown) probability for the evolution of biotic life, Fb.
I suggest that Fb may be estimated by future spectral observations of exoplanet
biomarkers. If Fb is in the range 0.001 -- 1 then a biotic planet may be
expected within 10 -- 100 light years from Earth. Extending the biotic results
to advanced life I derive expressions for the distance to putative
civilizations in terms of two additional Drake parameters - the probability for
evolution of a civilization, Fc, and its average longevity. For instance,
assuming optimistic probability values (Fb Fc 1) and a broadcasting longevity
of a few thousand years, the likely distance to the nearest civilizations
detectable by SETI is of the order of a few thousand light years. The
probability of detecting intelligent signals with present and future radio
telescopes is calculated as a function of the Drake parameters. Finally, I
describe how the detection of intelligent signals would constrain the Drake
parameters.
