need help! trying to find a equation for alien life

I am lookin for an astrologist, a phsysist and a mathimatition, and posibly some other scientists to find out the exact probibillity for a planet to have the chance of holding alien life. I need you people to work what the zone in which a planet is the right tempurate to hold liquid water and what are the chances that a planet would be in this zone and ect.
THis may take a long time but in the end i'm hoping for a rough statistic
that will tell you that 1 in x planets can probialy hold life.
please correct me if i have missed out certain factors as i know i have!

well, to be honest your first mistake is to assume that water is necessary for life. of course it is on our planet, and we've really only got our planet to go from right now, but it's entirely possible that life can arise without water and may not have to be based on carbon like our planet at all. this then begs the question, will we even be able to recognise it as a life? the answer is murky at best.

reply to post by optimus primal


Good points. In fact, going by that line of thought, can AI be considered 'life'? Oooh, my brain hurts thinking about it,

Doesn't the Drake Equation already do something like that?

reply to post by Diplomat


But the Drake Equation is for intelligent life. The OP just says life, so it can even mean stupid life. Heheh I like that. Stupid life.

Emm.. I mean simple life. Gahhh! That alludes to a stupid lifeform as well...

can AI be considered life? personally when we either encounter true AI or create it, i'd say yes. so far, we haven't, at least that we know. i think about it this way, what makes us living? is it the cells in our bodies? that we exist? or that we strive to better ourselves? if you consider what makes us intelligent, and then find an artificial thing that exhibits those characteristics that is artificial intelligence. the sad part is....we really have no idea what makes us intelligent, just a lot of suppositions and beliefs about it really.

edit to add: this post didn't take that into account you're right the OP didn't say intelligent, only life. although i'd still define life as anything striving to exist.

[edit on 8-11-2007 by optimus primal]

reply to post by open mind


I’ve posted this elsewhere but will do so again for this thread’s benefit. This is indeed a fascinating discussion – thank you for adding your insights and giving me and others different perspectives to ponder.

Like some of you here, I’ve done extensive research on this topic of extraterrestrial life, and while I personally believe in it, I admit we have no (public) empirical evidence of their existence. Nevertheless, I believe some of the logic presented can be used to validate a premise of quantifiable existence.

I agree that some of Drake/Sagan assumptions for variables in their equation are perhaps a bit optimistic, superfluous even. In circumspect, there are alternative ways to think and logically, mathematically, reach a similar conclusion.

I implore everyone here (esp. the OP) to pick up a copy of the following book and read it. You’ll find yourself amazed and quoting from it often. This is a great addition to any library for those interested in this subject. The author does not rely on Drake’s equation, yet clearly lays out in lay terms an unambiguous, irrefutable case for it to be impossible that our planet alone harbors life in the universe.

Almost no hard math and no complex equations will distract you from the treatise and it is an enjoyable, captivating quick reading. You’ll have no trouble finishing the paperback in a few sessions. The basis for the author’s study is heavily grounded in mathematics, however, particularly the probability laws, such as the:
*Union of collection of independent events
*Sequential probability paradigm
*Information inspection paradox
*Panspermia hypothesis
*Increasing entropy in thermodynamics
*Chaotic probability distributions in deterministic and random systems

For those unfamiliar with these terms, don’t let them intimidate you – the book is very easy to grasp…

Probability 1, by Amir D. Aczel, Harcourt, Inc., ISBN: 0-15-601080-1 (pbk.)

This is a fun, entertaining read and may even alter your thinking a bit. There are a bunch of used copies available at Amazon - often less than one dollar. See – now there’s no excuse not to read it!

You can get it here, right now (used from only $0.19!):
Probability 1.

Probability 1 should be a part of every library. I’ve shared it with many skeptics and believers alike. The result is always similar: “Wow – I had no idea it was so obvious…”

Intriguing Thread -thanks - and keep looking up!

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[edit on 11/8/2007 by Outrageo]

I agree with optimus. For years people had a set notion about what factors are necessary to provide life. Then within the 20th Century we discovered areas on earth that defy that assumption by teeming with life.

If all the censorship conspiracies are true about NASA, then we need to add the correct values in the Drake Equation for "Ne is the average number of planets that can potentially support life per star that has planets". If the fossils were indeed found on Mars, then there's an additional planet to add with Earth to the equation. Plus, if Jupiter's moon, Io, contains life within its frozen oceans, that's another planet to add.

To be accurate, we need to know exactly how many bodies in our solar system support life. Then, how many of those contain intelligent life.

I've come acroos optimus's point before; that other-worldly beings might not need water or even oxygen[although they would most likely need a gas and two types of element to feed on and spark a chemical reation] and this could mean that almost any planet with an atmosphere could support life