A Harvard professor is risking his reputation to search for aliens.

Started by Wahoo Redux, April 10, 2024, 08:19:30 PM

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Wahoo Redux

April 10, 2024, 08:19:30 PM
A Harvard professor is risking his reputation to search for aliens. Tech tycoons are bankrolling his quest.

QuoteWhile Loeb's claims and camera-ready charm have grated on some in academia, they've amassed for him a loving and growing fan base outside the ivory tower. His work is the subject of an upcoming Netflix documentary. There is also an upcoming off-Broadway show about his life, in which he plans to star. Among his most avid fans are wealthy tech tycoons who see him as one of them: a disruptor. And they are the ones bankrolling perhaps Loeb's most ambitious work to date, The Galileo Project: A research program devoted to seeking the extraordinary evidence that we are not alone.
Come, fill the Cup, and in the fire of Spring
Your Winter-garment of Repentance fling:
The Bird of Time has but a little way
To flutter--and the Bird is on the Wing.

lightning

#1
April 10, 2024, 08:47:17 PM
Quote from: Wahoo Redux on April 10, 2024, 08:19:30 PMA Harvard professor is risking his reputation to search for aliens. Tech tycoons are bankrolling his quest.

QuoteWhile Loeb's claims and camera-ready charm have grated on some in academia, they've amassed for him a loving and growing fan base outside the ivory tower. His work is the subject of an upcoming Netflix documentary. There is also an upcoming off-Broadway show about his life, in which he plans to star. Among his most avid fans are wealthy tech tycoons who see him as one of them: a disruptor. And they are the ones bankrolling perhaps Loeb's most ambitious work to date, The Galileo Project: A research program devoted to seeking the extraordinary evidence that we are not alone.

I'm reminded of the movie Tenure, where there is a professor going up for tenure, with a research portfolio consisting of his search for Sasquatch.

Parasaurolophus

#2
April 10, 2024, 09:35:02 PM
Aliens? Sure. Here? I wish.

More importantly... He has over 1000 pubs!?!
I know it's a genus.

Sun_Worshiper

#3
April 11, 2024, 11:25:29 AM
This guy is living his best tenured life. Hats off to him.

apl68

#4
April 11, 2024, 12:18:14 PM
I recently saw speculation to the effect that the Fermi Paradox can be explained by advanced civilizations either accidentally destroying themselves, or having to abandon their tech in order to avoid doing so.
And you will cry out on that day because of the king you have chosen for yourselves, and the Lord will not hear you on that day.

Langue_doc

#5
April 11, 2024, 02:07:46 PM
He has tenure, has held prestigious appointments, and has also hobnobbed with the famous. He doesn't have anything to lose, so why not play at finding extraterrestrials as long as he's getting funded? Sounds like a last fling before retirement.

dismalist

#6
April 11, 2024, 02:13:31 PM
QuoteLoeb argues that while we haven't yet found any evidence of aliens, this may be precisely because scientists have been so reluctant to look for them.

Or, it may be that the aliens are reluctant to visit us -- for good reason!
That's not even wrong!
--Wolfgang Pauli

Hibush

#7
April 11, 2024, 02:27:28 PM
In space there is a lot of stuff around whose properties are not fully described by existing models. So to here on earth. Scientists develop an array of hypotheses that might explain the properties and then conduct experiments to disprove some of them. One hypothesis might be "it is controlled by space aliens." I don't personally bother to disprove that mechanism in my biology experiments. So I am guilty of not looking, as Loeb argues. If given enough money, I could add that test to the project.

jimbogumbo

#8
April 11, 2024, 08:04:02 PM
I figured SETI would find them if they are out there.
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