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Originally Posted by CraigD
A problem with the predictions of the Drake equation is that they are predicated on an assumption that biology tends to evolve intelligent life – in a sense, that the purpose of biology is to produce intelligence.
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The Drake Equation itself does not assume this at all, and while this assumption can color the opinions of those who seek to fill in the terms, in fact any approach at determining the "probablity that intelligence evolves" is never 1, and even the most ardent "intelligence is inevitable" proponents won't put 1 in for this term, because there are many, many reasons it wouldn't evolve: the fact that evolutionary processes are quite happy skipping "intelligence" entirely doesn't affect the probability of this term much. This just points out the main weakness of Drake, which is that it can't be used for anything more than guessing at the boundaries for discussion. The terms themselves cannot be determined with much accuracy, so complaining about accuracy of the result is a moot point. It does make pretty clear though that the overall probability of life in the universe is pretty high, even if its not reachable, not contemporaneous, or not friendly....
Cheers,
Buffy
