Search the Community

So here I was checking up on what mud the infowarriors at RT are raking today when a headline caught my eye. The article within proved so infuriating that I've decided to create a thread. The arrogant mentality that saw Galileo derided still exists today, claims Harvard professor who wants to prove aliens exist OK, right out of the gate we're getting a Galileo Gambit. A literal Galileo Gambit. Funny thing is, I also knew right then and there who the "Harvard Professor" is going to be, and I was right. Avi Loeb does have a controversial area to his career as an astrophysics superstar. Anyone remember Project Starshot? That affordable interstellar probe program, if only we had huge laser cannons in space? He seems to have been involved in it. At the very least, this explains why, when he saw the puzzling data about ʻOumuamua, he became dead-set that it's a discarded alien lightsail. Since then he seems to have been on a PR blitzkrieg related to SETI. I first heard of him from r/space, who were very irked: about a week prior he had a Reddit AMA where his justification for excluding every other explanation of ʻOumuamua's anomalous behavior amounted to "I'm a Harvard professor", and where a few of the more persistent doubters were banned. Apparently this radical damage control caused a brouhaha among the mods of r/AskScience. This guy seems to have massive clout, and he's now out there selling what smells like snake oil. This is continuing the pattern of alien/UAP hype of the last few years. I'm not sure what the heck is going on, but it does not seem good. So, let's discuss. Link to article proper: https://www.rt.com/op-ed/531251-avi-loeb-ufo-galileo/ Full text below.