Avi LoebRecensioni

"Scientists must and will be at the forefront of positioning humanity to discover life and civilizations in the Universe." As champion of the belief that 2017's ‘Oumuamua asteroidal visitor to the solar system was an ET artifact (he makes innumerable mentions of alien artifacts throughout the book), Avi Loeb started his Galileo Project as a first step toward realizing the goal implied by the above quote from page 22. In the book's idiosyncratic elaborations on it all, he expresses his approval of AI and his disapproval of virtual reality, science fiction (SF), and chemical rockets (without mentioning the space-elevator concept). On SF, I'd say his put-downs are very mistaken, unless he's just thinking of trashy visual works instead of quality written works.

Esteemed professor Avi Loeb heads up the Galileo Project at Harvard University, a science-based effort to understand the nature of UAP (UFOs). Interstellar is our glimpse into this astonishing project and importantly, its potential impact on human society.

For the skeptical mind wondering if there is any reality to the notion that extraterrestrials are behind UAPs, Loeb is the perfect person to guide the reader. He’s a well know and highly credible scientist. And of course, he speaks the language of science, helping the reader to understand the extraterrestrial hypothesis is a hypothesis not a conspiracy theory. That this highly credentialed scientist is willing to stake his reputation on the investigation into extraterrestrials and UAP is a statement on Loeb’s perceived importance of the topic.

At the same time, Loeb is knowledgeable on the UAP topic. Throughout the book, he discusses recent government activities and lawmaking on UAP. He covers people active in the UAP community such as Ryan Graves and Luis Elizondo as well as various related government offices and task forces like AATIP, UAPTF and AARO. He’s clearly plugged into the current state of affairs regarding UAP.

All of this positions Loeb to be the perfect person to provide the general public with greater depth on UAPs. He explains that the UAP phenomenon is simply another unknown that can and should be addressed by science. No need for government proclamations or blurry photos. Just hard data, expertly gathered and parsed by scientists to validate or invalidate a hypothesis. The book is the perfect combination of Loeb’s personal credibility, hard science and an introduction to the extraterrestrial hypothesis to help onboard the skeptical to the topics of UAP and extraterrestrials.

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The Galileo Project’s fundamental precept seems to be this: Humans were very likely born into a mature universe that has been richly populated by many interstellar, non-human entities for billions of years. It should be possible to find some of their junk. From this junk we prove the existence of non-human intelligences (NHI) and perhaps get a leg up on our own technological advancement.

The project’s numerous efforts on UAP study are comprehensive. Complex hardware and software sensing packages capture photographic, infrared, radar, magnetic, audio and other inputs, using AI to process the data down to just the truly anomalous observations deserving investigation. Satellite imagery is computer processed to identify potential UAP. Remnants of Interstellar Object IM1 are scraped off the bottom of the Pacific Ocean and analyzed. And more.

The Galileo teams are taking gigantic, never before considered steps to generate hard scientific data to help resolve the questions of whether the earth is or has been visited. For those that follow the UAP topic, it’s a dream come true.

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Equally important, Loeb explains to us why the potential discovery of NHI is important to humanity. Those reasons revolve around maturing ourselves as a race, which, in combination with technological advancement are viewed as humanity’s pathway to both an interstellar future and survival of the race.

Loeb’s big concern for the future of humanity is straight forward. He sees humanity at great risk due to the fact that we all live on a single planet. Accordingly, he believes that humanity needs to inhabit multiple planetary bodies in order to ensure our survival.

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One of our most respected and decorated scientists, Avi Loeb appears to be at a place in his career where he is free to address the untouchables of science: UAP, extraterrestrials and the intransigence of the scientific community on these topics. Interstellar gives us a view into his efforts and the possible impact of these discoveries on humanity. It’s a very enjoyable read.

A mystery explored in depth reveals the possibility of an alien flyby.

Very interesting points that really make you think.
I wish the future holds the answers, that the author is proven right and that I live to see it.

A particular quote stood out to me in Avi Loeb's book, "Interstellar: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life and Our Future in the Stars." To win their trust, we'll be wise to invoke the spirit of the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman, who once remarked: "Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts. When someone says 'science teaches such and such,' he is using the word incorrectly. Science doesn't teach it. Experience teaches it." That's what we must share with the public, worldwide—our search for observed experience." In my passion for science-related endeavors, I have stated nearly the same thing to people who talk about Science as if it were a person or entity and that "Science" does this or that. I felt this was a particularly great quote for Loeb to put into the book and is the perfect foundation for how to look at what Science is.

In a religious service, the Rabbi Emeritus, Rob Dobrusin had a sermon and spoke about the book, and one of his quotes also resonated with me. Religious institutions often refused to entertain the belief in other life forms in the Universe. Dobrusin said, "there is nothing in traditional Jewish faith that would in any way be threatened by assuming or even proving the presence of intelligent life elsewhere in the Universe. Perhaps some of our texts even presuppose this reality." I am so happy that Loeb brought this up in his book. It is another argument people have against alien life forms, and I appreciate this mention in the book.

Loeb also gives you much to think about what finding alien life would do for us. It would have us asking questions that we've all thought about, to questions, at least, I hadn't thought about yet. He explains why we might not have seen alien life yet to answer that age-old question about whether alien life exists.

I'm not good at math, even if I did get As in college, so when I saw equations (like the Drake Equation), I had to stop and consider them more because I had to understand them before I moved on. I don't believe math being mentioned in this book to be a bad thing; quite the contrary. Mentioning math is something that humanity needs only proves how important math is to teach our youngsters.

Loeb's enthusiasm and passion for this subject are evident in everything he says in this book. There is a lot of information put forth in the book, as well as a lot of resources mentioned that you can look up on your own. Yes, there was a lot of opinion in there, but who doesn't have opinions? When you feel passionate about something, you write to convince others that it's a worthy subject to study, or in this case, worth enough to be funded the way other invisible science endeavors are pursued. When you want to get people on board, you speak your mind, which Loeb does effectively.

Another great point made is about how we must learn to thrive without reliance on the Sun. Most realize the sun is going to die on us, but few people state how important it is that we learn to thrive without it and the need for interstellar space travel.

Loeb's ideas of space travel are a mixture of common sense and an enlightened view of what our space neighbors would be like. Loeb makes you want to board any spaceship you can find and sparks an interest in making friends of our space friends. Loeb makes the case that whether or not you believe in any other life in the universe, it is still important to search and important to progress to the point where we could leave this planet and survive in space or on another planet. he is effective at pointing out the reasons why it's so important to put more money into these searches. From equipment to ships, we have a lot of work to do.

This is my first book of Loeb's and after reading this one, it won't be my last. I read the other book reviews and if so many others think his other book is even better, then I cannot wait to read it. If you are inquisitive as to the evidence there is, reasons for spending more money looking, and the eventuality of humanity having to survive on other planets, then this is the book for you. I always believed there was life out there and even assumed that their civilization must be more advanced than ours. This is a must-read!

It is an ok book. It has one major argument. That weird thing they found in 2017 Oumuamua might be extraterrestrial and this possibility is much more interesting than the supersymmetry idea behind the CERN supercollider so this is where the money must go.

I’m not sure what I expected from a book that posits that advanced alien technology passed through our solar system in 2017. Yes, I expected to read about some kind of weird anomalous, unexplainable object that passed through our solar system, and that’s definitely here. In the 11 days that we astronomers were able to observe it—noticed too late to possibly catch it before the interstellar object was on the way out of the solar system—it didn’t seem to fit all the characteristics of an asteroid or comet. Weird geometry, its luminosity, its lack of a cometary tail, the strange fact that it appeared to have accelerated away from the sun in a straight line, out of its orbit, somehow propelled...

All that I expected. And it’s really interesting. I’m not a scientist, but I find the natural world and Avi Loeb is an excellent writer. His book is replete with examples to demonstrate complex principals of physics. But the Extraterrestrial is not just a scientific argument for an interstellar visitor of alien origins. Also here are Loeb’s philosophical examination for what it means to look for evidence of aliens, why we should care, and why we should question scientific orthodoxy.

Yeah, that. It’s not as if Loeb is finding common cause with Galileo, who died accused of heresy by the Catholic Church because he would not agree with the orthodoxy of the day, though he’s certainly willing to point out the similarities. In his case, it’s the willingness to look for extraterrestrial life, something many of his colleagues in the field of astronomy are unwilling to do. The longest-serving chair of Harvard’s astronomy department, Loeb sees the impact of tenure, and the fight for tenure by young astronomers, as a force that influences young astronomers towards conformity instead of encouraging creativity and out of the box thinking.

Loeb is good writer and his life-long interest in philosophy and an inclination to examine the big questions makes for an interesting narrative and mini-biography intermingled with how he got to a place where he’s mixing with Stephen Hawking, theorizing about black holes, and searching for evidence of extraterrestrial life. It’s really interesting stuff.

Is he right? Heck if I know. But he’s got me convinced that the questions we ask are about as important as the stuff we observe out there. If the universe is as big as we think it is, there’s good reason to think that other civilizations have arisen and, maybe, are even more advanced than we are. When might we find evidence of them? Or they of us?

A really good, albeit short memoir of not only a career, but of mankind’s interaction with a mysterious interstellar object, that may or may not have had extraterrestrial origins. Not overly technical & well explained, this was astrophysics easy listening style. Clearly an enthusiast, this comes across, and more to the better for doing so. Intriguing.

This is book is part autobiography, part explanation of the scientific process, part argument for the scientific community to take SETI more seriously, and part about why the author believes Oumuamua is our first visitor originating from intelligent life not of Earth.

Parts of this book made the hair stand up on the back of my neck and give me goosebumps ...

Avi Loeb is the head of the Astronomy Department at Harvard University and is one of the world leaders in his field. He believes that ‘Oumuamua, an object detected in 2017 as it flew through our solar system, was advanced technology produced by an alien civilisation. Most scientists rejected the idea, but in this book Loeb makes a convincing case that we shouldn’t be took quick to dismiss this explanation.

The problem is that he makes that case very early in the book, and spends the rest of the time talking about his life growing up on a moshav in Israel, his parents, the second world war, where he goes on holiday with his family, his love of seashells, etc, etc. Surely he had enough material to fill up an entire book on ‘Oumuamua, but maybe his editors told him not to lay on the science too much. For whatever reason, this reads like a magazine article with some autobiography and unrelated musings about life tagged on.

On the other hand, it’s an amazing story and he may well be right.

قرأته بنهم بعد مشاهدة مقابلة طويلة ورائعة للمؤلف ضمن برنامج جو روغان. أُعجبت بتواضعه وحججه المنطقية وحرصه على جوهر المنهجية العلمية.
ملخص القصة أنه في عام ٢٠١٧، اكتشف علماء الفضاء عبر مرصد هاليكالا في هاواي أول جسم غريب يعبر نظامنا الشمسي ولا ينتمي إليه، أي قادم من خارجه. أطلقوا عليه اسم ”أوموّاموّا“ أو ”المرسال القادم من بعيد“. لا أحد يعرف على وجه اليقين ماهية هذا الشيء الغريب. له العديد من الخصائص التي لا تتوافق مع الأجسام الفلكية التي تُرصد عادةً في جوارنا الشمسي كالمذنبات وغيرها. بسبب شكله الشبيه بالصفيحة، وسطوع إضاءته، وحركته الغير متوقعة، لم يتمكن الباحثون من إدراجه تحت أي من التصنيفات المعروفة للأجسام الفلكية، مما دفع المؤلف آفي لوب -أستاذ الفيزياء الفلكية بجامعة هارفرد- أن يبقي الباب مفتوحاً أمام احتمال أن يكون هذا الجسم الغريب العجيب من مخلّفات حضارة أخرى من هذا الفضاء الشاسع.
استهواني الموضوع للغاية، ووجدت ردة فعل المجتمع العلمي والرفض القاطع والاستهزاء الذي واجهه المؤلف قمة الغرور والعنجهية وأبعد ما يكون عن روح العلم الاستكشافية. صحيح أننا لا نملك أي دليل على وجود كائنات أخرى في هذا الكون اللامنتاهي، إلا أنّ الأرقام تتكلّم والرياضيات لا تكذب، وقد يكون ظهور الحياة على الأرض بحد ذاته دليلاً على أن الحياة في الكون شيءٌ ممكن، ما يزيد احتمالية ظهورها في مواضع أخرى منه. لذلك، أرى أن الجواب الصادق الوحيد على سؤال كهذا هو: لا نعرف، لا أحد يعرف، وربما لن نعرف مطلقاً. ونظراً لاستحالة التأكد بأي شكل من الأشكال، يبقى الباب مفتوحاً أمام جميع الاحتمالات.

I Want to Believe

Are we here on Earth the only intelligent life there will ever be in the whole enormous universe? Yes, to this question is harder to believe than no, an acknowledgement that because we exist other intelligent life must exist as well. This is not the same as saying we will ever see these intelligent beings, nor that they will physically visit us. Space is just to vast and the known laws of physics are just too restricting. However, we might detect them in the same way they may detect us, by radio signals and by long-distance exploratory efforts wandering into our realm, though probably not quite as spectacularly as in Arthur C. Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama. Avi Loeb’s case for ‘Oumuamua being such an effort of a faraway civilization probably is closer to the truth. And even this, if you listen to critics, is just too hard to believe.

To all of you who have copies of the Fox Mulder poster “I want to believe” and to all the more of you, of us, who agree with the sentiment and believe we are not alone, Avi Loeb’s book will be akin to a scientific thrill ride. Loeb describes the arrival and quick departure of interstellar object ‘Oumuamua and his scientifically reasoned argument that this was probably our first contact with an artifact created by intelligent extraterrestrial life. Among other things, he describes what sets this object apart from a naturally occurring one, such as comet. That it was moving too fast, that it changed course slightly when it encountered our sun, that it was bright and uniquely shaped, being quite flat, suggesting it was fashioned for a purpose.

Naturally, as you would expect, Loeb, an astrophysicist, among other things, builds his argument on scientific facts and accumulated research, which, if he had used strictly scientific language, would certainly have been dense and impenetrable to the layperson. Fortunately, Loeb is one of those gifted people who can express himself in easily understood language, and even better, able to draw examples explaining concepts from most people’s everyday experiences.

Now, whether you accept his argument is entirely up to you. If your desire to believe that we might know in some definitive way whether other life exists in the vast universe, you’ll probably be on his side. Of course, you shouldn’t wait for extraterrestrials to drop in any time soon. The laws of physics and the distance between stars almost certainly guarantee that will not happen, and may never happen. And, honestly, would we really want a technologically superior civilization dropping in on us?

I Want to Believe

Are we here on Earth the only intelligent life there will ever be in the whole enormous universe? Yes, to this question is harder to believe than no, an acknowledgement that because we exist other intelligent life must exist as well. This is not the same as saying we will ever see these intelligent beings, nor that they will physically visit us. Space is just to vast and the known laws of physics are just too restricting. However, we might detect them in the same way they may detect us, by radio signals and by long-distance exploratory efforts wandering into our realm, though probably not quite as spectacularly as in Arthur C. Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama. Avi Loeb’s case for ‘Oumuamua being such an effort of a faraway civilization probably is closer to the truth. And even this, if you listen to critics, is just too hard to believe.

To all of you who have copies of the Fox Mulder poster “I want to believe” and to all the more of you, of us, who agree with the sentiment and believe we are not alone, Avi Loeb’s book will be akin to a scientific thrill ride. Loeb describes the arrival and quick departure of interstellar object ‘Oumuamua and his scientifically reasoned argument that this was probably our first contact with an artifact created by intelligent extraterrestrial life. Among other things, he describes what sets this object apart from a naturally occurring one, such as comet. That it was moving too fast, that it changed course slightly when it encountered our sun, that it was bright and uniquely shaped, being quite flat, suggesting it was fashioned for a purpose.

Naturally, as you would expect, Loeb, an astrophysicist, among other things, builds his argument on scientific facts and accumulated research, which, if he had used strictly scientific language, would certainly have been dense and impenetrable to the layperson. Fortunately, Loeb is one of those gifted people who can express himself in easily understood language, and even better, able to draw examples explaining concepts from most people’s everyday experiences.

Now, whether you accept his argument is entirely up to you. If your desire to believe that we might know in some definitive way whether other life exists in the vast universe, you’ll probably be on his side. Of course, you shouldn’t wait for extraterrestrials to drop in any time soon. The laws of physics and the distance between stars almost certainly guarantee that will not happen, and may never happen. And, honestly, would we really want a technologically superior civilization dropping in on us?

Avi Loeb astrophysicist plays with the thought what if the first object we found arriving from outside the Solar system, the Oumuamua had an artificial origin. Like a good scientist he backs his hypothesis with data and fact but of course this always remains a hypothesis and we`ll never know the truth. In the second part of the book he contemplates about the consequences IF it was the truth.
My only criticism that he clearly was struggling to fill the mere 200 pages long book with it so sometimes he takes long and useless sidesteps talking about his own life and work in general.

Se trata de un libro de 13 capítulos que analiza el primer objeto interestelar detectado por la humanidad en 2017. Dicho objeto recibió el nombre de Oumuamua. El autor plantea ciertas teorías sobre su origen y descarta otras o aporta información breve sobre por qué este objeto no "debería" catalogarse como natural, sino más bien como extraterrestre.

En el libro no podemos esperar respuestas a las grandes preguntas de que si estamos solos en el universo. Pero nos lanza ciertas ideas que se están barajando en su equipo de investigación las cuales son muy útiles para entender las nuevas tendencias de pensamientos. Es justo también decir que esta obra contiene muchas trazar autobiográficas (habla en primera persona) en las que se incluyen las referencias a sus artículos científicos en los que se vertebra su hipótesis extraterrestre.

Si bien la lectura puede resultar un tanto densa debido a la naturaleza de la materia que estamos tratando (pues se trata de un libro de divulgación científica "medio"), sirva como ejemplo conceptos como el sistema de reposo local o LSR, podemos extraer ciertas reflexiones filosóficas de cómo la ciencia trabaja y cómo ciertas teorías no suelen ser respaldadas no por las evidencias, sino por el conservadurismo científico.

Por lo general, recomiendo este libro a todas aquellas personas interesadas en la vida extraterrestre y a todos los que se han hecho la famosa pregunta ¿hay alguien fuera? ya que les va ofrecer diversos puntos de vista e hipótesis. Lo que más destaco de esta lectura es la invitación a centrarnos en plantear adecuadas preguntas en lugar de determinadas respuestas más o menos populares.

En definitiva, si bien el libro físico en tapa dura puede hacer que suba de precio considerablemente, creo que es un libro que debe estar en las bibliotecas de los enamorados de las teorías extraterrestres y un libro recomendable sobre la "libertad" científica y la "humildad" en los procesos de investigación. Cabe destacar que el libro incluye ilustraciones o representaciones artísticas que complementan el texto.½

For someone who continually brings up the need for humility, Loeb is nothing by brazen in his polemic against the scientific establishment and what he characterizes as a "gamble" that alien technology is whizzing around our solar system. Just as we don't know who exactly built the Sphinx, resorting to aliens is not Occam's Razor. There are logical problems. Still, it's a fun read and he does have a point that if alien space trash is around, it is probably everywhere. A new direction for SETI research.½

Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth by Avi Loeb makes an interesting and compelling case for both extraterrestrial life and thinking outside the box (or at least being willing to push against the sides).

It actually took me a little while to get into the book, it starts almost like a memoir. But that short bit sets up the aspect of the argument that urges us to think big picture and to not get too stuck in our own specialties that we are essentially wearing blinders. If the first part makes you consider putting the book down, don't, it will all come together and be worth it.

The writing is accessible and suitable for any reader with an interest in the topic. Enough science to support his theory, all explained clearly. Big ideas expressed with an openness and curiosity that will make active readers consider the possibilities.

I think we all tend to have less of a problem with abstractly or theoretically accepting an idea than with actually acknowledging something tangible that might support that idea. It seems that while many scientists have no problem believing that there is likely to be some form(s) of life on other planets, they are resistant to considering this interstellar object as possible evidence of intelligent life elsewhere. It is just that wall which Loeb appears to be trying to scale in this work, with both fellow scientists and laypeople.

I recommend this to any reader with an interest in the possibility of extraterrestrial life.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.