The Search for Life: The Drake Equation (2010) Reviews

• Bringing Drake's numbers to life

  david-klompas2016-10-13

  While Drake's famous equation is common knowledge among those with any interest in the search for extraterrestrial life, there hasn't been enough focus on why it was an important landmark in the history of humankind. This documentary, commissioned by The Open University and produced by the BBC, goes a long way towards remedying this awkward situation. The equation itself was a vital step towards wider acceptance of the concept of extraterrestrial life among the scientific community. However, telling the story of an equation poses certain challenges which could have led this TV film to be very bland. This was not the case, and the crew do a wonderful job of bringing the history behind the numbers to life with a sense of true excitement. Director Tim Usborne does a fantastic job telling the story of this landmark equation through some incredible directorial work. His presence is never felt too overtly, which gives presenter Dallas Campbell a sense of control over the narrative woven through this documentary. We are thus left with a compelling piece of television that adequately demonstrates why the Drake equation is such an important element of astrobiology.

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• Rather lacking in the discussion of filters

  LorenPechtel2016-09-07

  I think there was too much focus on the equation and too little on the filters. The physical factors aren't really that important--the product of the physical terms will no doubt end up somewhere within a few orders of magnitude of 1. The prevalence of ETs clearly comes down to the biological factors and the filters he was talking about. Unfortunately, I do not feel he handled this well at all. The thing is, there aren't three filters, there are four. He touched on the L parameter but only in reference to external threats. The really scary threat is internal--there are many ways we could do ourselves in and we've already had multiple close calls. We might not see any ETs out there because L is always very short.

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• Can the predictions of life elsewhere be represented by an equation?

  TxMike2016-03-02

  I am a scientist, and for most of my adult life have paid attention to some of the various articles and discussions regarding intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. I had heard of the Drake Equation but until I viewed this program had never actually gotten curious enough to find out what it is. This program educated me, and it is good to have Dr Drake himself explaining some of it. Overall a stellar program. The equation is the thinking of Dr Frank Drake, Astronomer, who in the 1960s began the SETI (search for extraterrestrial intelligence) and came up with his equation, basically a combination of 7 factors which calculate the likelihood that intelligent life exists in worlds other than Earth. Depending on how you judge some of the terms you get at least 10,000 to 50,000 in our own galaxy. The number of likely worlds with intelligent life at any given time in history, but intended only as a conversation starter. This program examines that and the ongoing search. From a basic mathematical viewpoint, since we know of only ONE case, our own, any attempt to extrapolate is the same as extrapolating any line starting from a single point. It cannot be done with any degree of certainty. The probability of getting it correct, as a mathematical exercise, is very close to ZERO probability. And that right now is the biggest obstacle. Until we have actual evidence that intelligent life really is out there then it is all a hope and a prayer. One scientist explains it this way. He sees three "filters", each very difficult, if even possible, to get through. The first is chemicals combining to form even the most basic biological molecules. The second is those molecules generating the most basic life, single-celled organisms. And the final filter is the process for those organisms to evolve into a higher form of life with a brain and consciousness that is necessary for the type of intelligence that results in the invention of telecommunications techniques. Even with the vast number of possible life-compatible worlds it is so improbable that it might have happened only once, on our Earth. Because intercepting communications from billions of miles, perhaps billions of light-years, away is our only hope to gain evidence of intelligent life elsewhere. And even though we know of the large numbers of stars and inevitable planets, and that basic statistics would predict at least some of them would have intelligent life, until we get evidence it all remains theoretical. That is why SETI and supporting exploration are working so fervently, to attempt to find evidence, nothing less will matter. To quote the famous author Arthur C. Clarke, "Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying. "

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