Guest:  Dr. Avi Loeb; Topics: Professor Loeb’s new book,"Extraterrestrial: The First Sign Of intelligent Life Beyond Earth," scientific critique, searching for life and more.

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We welcomed Professor Loeb back to The Space Show, this time to discuss his new book, “Extraterrestrial: The First Sign Of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth.” Dr. Loeb talked about the scientific community biases toward the extraterrestrial subject matter along with his theory regarding the Oumuamua abnormalities leading him to consider the possibility that Oumuamua was extraterrestrial.  Our guest talked at length about light sail propulsion, advanced technology, and the potential for finding more interstellar objects when the Vera Rubin Telescope and Observatory goes online in a few years. Earlier in our discussion, I asked our guest for his thoughts on Tic Tac.  Don’t miss what he said about the Navy videos and sightings.

As I have done on other recent shows, I am repeating the tags and key words because they provide a very good short and concise summary of the key points of our discussion with Dr. Loeb.  I have read the book and urge you to read it.  One thing I did appreciate about the discussion, in addition to the theory behind suggesting ET origins, was the documentation of the negative scientific cultural response to Avi and his theory.   Dr. Loeb, a scientist at the top of the field at one of the top premiere institutions in the world, got dumped on by mainstream for having the nerve to suggest ET origins.  For those of you who have been with The Space Show for a long time, I know this does not surprise you as we have often talked about scientific orthodoxy, jaded peer review and similar issues.  Perhaps not on the ET subject but on other space and science topics.  Don’t get me wrong. I am not advocating for the fringe and the crazy but when someone of the caliber and reputation of Dr. Loeb gets dumped on for an unorthodox opinion or theory, what does that say about others pushing the envelope?  That to me is worth thinking about.   Maybe even having a Space Show discussion on the topic in the near future.

Tags/Key Words that summarize our discussion:  Dr. Avi Loeb, Extraterrestrial: The First Sign Of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth, Oumuamua, Avi’s Oumuamua theory, space travel, pancake shape significance, space archaeology, illusions, culture, scientific method, Borisov 2019, plasma physics, philosophy, Tic Tac, experimental physics, theoretical physics, the ET origin, robots, Oumuamua purpose, Vera Rubin Telescope Observatory, navigation purposes, ET anomalies, Vega region, hydrogen iceberg, comet differences, scientists comfort zone, Ort cloud, Oumuamua tumbling speed, solar radiation push, bumping into it, The Pan-STARRS Observatory, optimizing searches, Breakthrough Starshot, light sail, valuable searches.

Many comments stood out for me during the discussion.  One, already mentioned, was the lack of open mindedness with the ET mention and theory.  Another had to do with using space archaeology and even space relics to help in the search for past intelligent life, even if from long ago civilizations dead for centuries or millions of years. Avi’s comments about Earth not being particularly interesting, intelligent or attractive for ET visitation caught my attention.

Please post your comments/questions for Dr. Loeb on our blog for this show.  You can reach our guest through his Harvard faculty page or me.  Finally, listen to the Hotel Mars program with Dr. Loeb as we discussed additional topics regarding his book and this subject.  The Hotel Mars show was January 27, 2021 and will be archived on TSS site once Mr. Batchelor uploads it to his site.