Adam Frank

But there's this great XTC comic where like, you know, somebody is working something out on the board and this physicist is looking over and saying, oh, oh, I just I just wrote down an equation for that. I solved your problem. Do you guys even have a journal for this? And the subtitle is why everybody hates physicists. Yeah. So sometimes that approach totally works.

Sometimes physicists can be very good at like zooming in on what is important and casting the details aside so you can get to the heart of an issue. And that's very useful sometimes. Other times it obfuscates, right? Other times it clouds over actually what you needed to focus on, especially when it comes to complexity. Yeah.

Sometimes physicists can be very good at like zooming in on what is important and casting the details aside so you can get to the heart of an issue. And that's very useful sometimes. Other times it obfuscates, right? Other times it clouds over actually what you needed to focus on, especially when it comes to complexity. Yeah.

Sometimes physicists can be very good at like zooming in on what is important and casting the details aside so you can get to the heart of an issue. And that's very useful sometimes. Other times it obfuscates, right? Other times it clouds over actually what you needed to focus on, especially when it comes to complexity. Yeah.

uh speaking of simplifying everything down to an equation uh let's return back to the question of how many alien civilizations are out there and uh talk about the drake equation yeah can you uh explain the drake equation you know people have various uh feelings about the drake equation uh you know it can be abused but basically it was the the story actually is really interesting so frank drake in uh 1960 does the first ever astrobiological experiment he

uh speaking of simplifying everything down to an equation uh let's return back to the question of how many alien civilizations are out there and uh talk about the drake equation yeah can you uh explain the drake equation you know people have various uh feelings about the drake equation uh you know it can be abused but basically it was the the story actually is really interesting so frank drake in uh 1960 does the first ever astrobiological experiment he

uh speaking of simplifying everything down to an equation uh let's return back to the question of how many alien civilizations are out there and uh talk about the drake equation yeah can you uh explain the drake equation you know people have various uh feelings about the drake equation uh you know it can be abused but basically it was the the story actually is really interesting so frank drake in uh 1960 does the first ever astrobiological experiment he

gets a radio telescope, points it at a couple of stars and listens for signals. That was the first time anybody done any experiment about any kind of life in the history of humanity. And he does it and he's kind of waiting for everybody to make fun of him. And still he gets a phone call from the government says, hey, we want you to do a meeting on interstellar communications, right?

gets a radio telescope, points it at a couple of stars and listens for signals. That was the first time anybody done any experiment about any kind of life in the history of humanity. And he does it and he's kind of waiting for everybody to make fun of him. And still he gets a phone call from the government says, hey, we want you to do a meeting on interstellar communications, right?

gets a radio telescope, points it at a couple of stars and listens for signals. That was the first time anybody done any experiment about any kind of life in the history of humanity. And he does it and he's kind of waiting for everybody to make fun of him. And still he gets a phone call from the government says, hey, we want you to do a meeting on interstellar communications, right?

So he's like, okay. So they organize a meeting with like just eight people. A young Carl Sagan is going to be there as well. And like the night before, Drake has to come up with an agenda. How do you come up with an agenda for a meeting on a topic that no one's ever talked about before, right? And so he actually breaks what he does.

So he's like, okay. So they organize a meeting with like just eight people. A young Carl Sagan is going to be there as well. And like the night before, Drake has to come up with an agenda. How do you come up with an agenda for a meeting on a topic that no one's ever talked about before, right? And so he actually breaks what he does.

So he's like, okay. So they organize a meeting with like just eight people. A young Carl Sagan is going to be there as well. And like the night before, Drake has to come up with an agenda. How do you come up with an agenda for a meeting on a topic that no one's ever talked about before, right? And so he actually breaks what he does.

What's so brilliant about the Drake equation is he breaks the problem of how many civilizations are out there into a bunch of sub-problems. And he breaks it into seven sub-problems. Each one of them is a factor in an equation that when you multiply them all together, you get the number of civilizations out there that we could communicate with. So the first term is the rate at which stars form.

What's so brilliant about the Drake equation is he breaks the problem of how many civilizations are out there into a bunch of sub-problems. And he breaks it into seven sub-problems. Each one of them is a factor in an equation that when you multiply them all together, you get the number of civilizations out there that we could communicate with. So the first term is the rate at which stars form.

What's so brilliant about the Drake equation is he breaks the problem of how many civilizations are out there into a bunch of sub-problems. And he breaks it into seven sub-problems. Each one of them is a factor in an equation that when you multiply them all together, you get the number of civilizations out there that we could communicate with. So the first term is the rate at which stars form.

The second term is the fraction of those stars that have planets, F sub p. The next term is the number of planets in the habitable zone, the place where we think life could form. The next term after that is the fraction of those planets where actually an abiogenesis event, life forms, occurs. The next one is the fraction of planets on which you start to get intelligence.

The second term is the fraction of those stars that have planets, F sub p. The next term is the number of planets in the habitable zone, the place where we think life could form. The next term after that is the fraction of those planets where actually an abiogenesis event, life forms, occurs. The next one is the fraction of planets on which you start to get intelligence.

The second term is the fraction of those stars that have planets, F sub p. The next term is the number of planets in the habitable zone, the place where we think life could form. The next term after that is the fraction of those planets where actually an abiogenesis event, life forms, occurs. The next one is the fraction of planets on which you start to get intelligence.

After that, it's the fraction of planets where that intelligence goes on to create a civilization. And then finally, the last term, which is the one that we really care about, is the lifetime. How long you have a civilization, now how long does it last? Well, you say we humans. We humans, right?