Drake Equation for the Multiverse: From the String Landscape to Complex Life

Abstract: It is argued that selection criteria usually referred to as "anthropic conditions" for the existence of intelligent (typical) observers widely adopted in cosmology amount only to preconditions for primitive life. The existence of life does not imply in the existence of intelligent life. On the contrary, the transition from single-celled to complex, multi-cellular organisms is far from trivial, requiring stringent additional conditions on planetary platforms. An attempt is made to disentangle the necessary steps leading from a selection of universes out of a hypothetical multiverse to the existence of life and of complex life. It is suggested that what is currently called the "anthropic principle" should instead be named the "prebiotic principle."