How do you describe something that by definition is supposed to bend all rules? Popular media is full of magical worlds, and each comes with its own system of magic: in Harry Potter, you must hold a wand and speak and incantation to cast a spell; in Dungeons & Dragons, spells are ranked by level and belong to a school, etc. In this course, we'll practice crafting our own systems of magic and learn how authors and game designers now use the same ideas for structuring magic as early astronomers, doctors, and alchemists, as well as magicians and spiritualists, used to understand and describe the reality around them.

Life is the most complex phenomenon we know of. Exactly what is needed for life to develop? A terrestrial planet in its star's habitable zone? A rich soup of biochemical precursors? Or maybe just a sprinkle of water and methane ice on a comet? In this course we will attempt to recreate and extend Frank Drake's famous attempt at quantifying the most complex phenomenon in the known universe. The Drake equation has just seven terms - can we do better? Or should we?