Fast Radio Bursts from Extragalactic Light Sails (2017) [pdf] | Hacker News Reader

Fast Radio Bursts from Extragalactic Light Sails (2017) [pdf]

lweb.cfa.harvard.edu

62 pointsmpweiher7 comments

It must be fun to come up with a hypothesis like this and be able to put some engineering constraints on the likelihood of it.

And then being able to summarise it in a fairly readable 4 pages.

While I respect the publication of this idea in a research journal, I'm fairly disgruntled by how Avi Loeb is now spending so much of his efforts promoting his book on the matter (i.e. profiting). The vast majority of astrophysicists reject the light sail theory as an explanation for the anomalous acceleration that 'Oumuamua experienced, now that we have better physical models.

Loeb has been outright attacked in the popular press for advancing his idea, so I think he's just doubling down and fighting back. The truth is that the side that will "win" this debate is the loudest one and Loeb seems to actually understand that.

Writing a book about your research is basically expected in most academic fields. Engineering is no different.

Would you be mad at Thrun for publishing and profiting from Probablistic Robotics while publishing academic papers on the same subject? I wasn't.

Though le valle's "Planning Algorithms" was released free and has arguably done better, that model is not the state of the art in most academic publishing.

> I'm fairly disgruntled by how Avi Loeb is now spending so much of his efforts promoting his book on the matter

You realize this paper was written more than 4 years ago, no?

> The vast majority of astrophysicists reject the light sail theory as an explanation for the anomalous acceleration that 'Oumuamua experienced, now that we have better physical models.

Avi's point the whole time has been, precisely, that the vast majority of astrophysicists rejected his proposal even when it was the best explanation available.

i actually think avi's motivation for promoting the book is more about getting lightsails built. whatever his motivation i don't see whats wrong with writing about the theory for a popular audience, controversial or not. that seti isnt taken seriously is one of the themes in the book and its encouraging to see the taboo broken by someone in his position

previous discussion from original posting: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13837992

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