Is Intelligent Life Easy? Human-Like Life Probably Evolves "Right on Time"

In this video, streamed live on Apr 24, 2025 SETI Live, Frank Marchis of the SETI Institute interviews Daniel Mills of the University of Munich about the likelihood of intelligent evolving on an Earth-like planet.

A recent study proposes a new model for the evolution of intelligent life, which challenges the long-standing "hard steps" theory that the emergence of intelligent life is an exceedingly rare event due to a series of improbable evolutionary milestones. A team led by postdoctoral researcher Dan Mills from the University of Munich suggests that the development of intelligent life is a natural outcome of planetary evolution. They argue that Earth's environment underwent sequential "windows of habitability," periods when conditions became favorable for complex life to emerge. (Past Drake Award winner Jason Wright is a co-author on the study.)

The study emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration between astrophysics and geobiology to understand the evolution of life. Join planetary astronomer Franck Marchis in an in-depth discussion with Dr. Mills about why intelligent life may be common and how this could affect our search for life beyond Earth.

SETI Live is a weekly production of the SETI Institute and is recorded live it streams with viewers on YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, X, and Twitch. Guests include astronomers, planetary scientists, cosmologists, and more, working on current scientific research.

Franck Marchis is Senior Planetary Astronomer with SETI specializing in Planetary Sciences, Astronomy, Instrumentation, Education and Public Outreach, Exoplanet Detection. He has a Ph.D., Astrophysics, 1996, Université Paul Sabatier, France

Daniel Mills is a geobiologist and postdoctoral researcher associated with the University of Munich. He is currently working with Professor Bill Martin at the University of Düsseldorf to study the origin of life, although he plans to continue his research into windows of habitability at the University of Munich.

You can view this 30-minute video at www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEQJfyW5yt4
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