I think that when it was originated, it was close to being in the same condition the Schroedinger equation was when it was originated. He basically pulled it ou

I think that when it was originated, it was close to being in the same condition the Schroedinger equation was when it was originated. He basically pulled it out of his ... thin air as well. It got attention because of its heuristic value - and 'felt right' (not a factor to be overlooked). To this day, as WP notes, 'It is typically not possible to solve the Schrödinger equation exactly for situations of physical interest.' Yet he got a Nobel prize for it. Frank used his equation to get us thinking about SETI, and SETI is now decades old. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger_equation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger_equation