One scientist claims aliens have already visited us and we should invest more in searching for extraterrestrials.
Avi Loeb is a theoretical physicist, former chair of the astronomy department at Harvard University, and author of a new book called Extraterrestrial: the First Signs of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth (HMH Books, 2021).
For the past few years, he’s argued that an alien artifact, called Oumuamua, passed by Earth in 2017.
As you can imagine, a Harvard professor going on record that aliens exist caused quite a stir in the scientific community.
“People tend to have an opinion ahead of time, and I think that’s dangerous because we just don’t know who lives in our neighborhood and what their objectives are,” says Loeb.
“Because it has huge implication to ourselves. The way we view ourselves, there is something really fundamental about finding others that would say something about us, would say something about our future. So the stakes are really high.
“It will have a huge impact on society, but that’s exactly the reason why I think we should invest funds in finding the answer.”
On this episode of the University of Chicago’s Big Brains podcast, Loeb talks through this controversy and explains why he thinks we need to invest more in the search for alien life by developing a new field of “space archaeology.”
You can find the transcript for this episode here. Subscribe to Big Brains on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Spotify.
Source: University of Chicago
