[astro-ph.IM] The Drake Equation is a thought experiment whose purpose is to understand the ingredients necessary for life and advanced technological civilizations to exist on other worlds in our galaxy.
However, beyond reflecting on life on Earth, we have no knowledge of many of these ingredients, such as the number of planets that have life, the number with intelligent life, the number with advanced civilizations, and the lifetimes of these civilizations.
In this work, I will review the Drake Equation and the biases that scientists have traditionally had in discussing this equation and how it has led to the current searches of biological and technological signatures.
I will discuss how the Drake Equation looks different if we consider it through the lens of Indigenous methods and sciences and how these methods would lead to a dramatically different view of life in our Galaxy.
Hilding R. Neilson
Comments: 8 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication in Proceedings of Oxford XIII / IAU Symposium 399
Subjects: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)
Cite as: arXiv:2606.26296 [astro-ph.IM] (or arXiv:2606.26296v1 [astro-ph.IM] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2606.26296
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Submission history
From: Hilding Neilson
[v1] Wed, 24 Jun 2026 18:42:03 UTC (161 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.26296
Astrobiology, SETI, culture,
