Hopefully, in the course of viewing this website, you have put a lot of thought into what the necessary components for life are, and perhaps you even learned something or caught a glimpse of a different perspective. With that being said, you may not have agreed with everything Pfeifer proposed, and maybe you formed your own opinion. That is exactly the process that Pfeifer went through when analyzing the Drake Equation along with quotes from astronomers and astrobiologists regarding other life in the universe. Questioning and challenging common ideas is what has driven humans and scientists to achieve out of this world feats that were at some point deemed improbable. So go on, now's your chance.
Now that you are familiar with the Pfeifer Equation, you are encouraged to make your own! This could mean coming up with your own estimates, or even adding your own factors. Perhaps you disagree with some of the factors Pfeifer selected, in which case you could remove them from the equation entirely. Just be careful to pay close attention to how adding or removing a factor could affect the units in your end result. How many life-inhabiting worlds do you estimate are lurking in the Milky Way galaxy?
Made by Nicholas Pfeifer