Physicist who found spherical meteor fragments claims they are alien | Hacker News Reader

Physicist who found spherical meteor fragments claims they are alien

theconversation.com

16 pointsjoak16 comments

He has made no such claim, he simply maintains it as a possibility. Here’s a good medium article from Avi himself discussing that possibility and exactly how he intends to verify whether or not it actually is a possibility:

https://avi-loeb.medium.com/starting-the-analysis-of-spherul...

Avi Loeb is quite good at talking reasonably about treating extraterrestrial intelligence as an actual possibility for some observed phenomenon or other (anomalous acceleration seen in the extrasolar object ʻOumuamua as an example) in a way that sounds rational to me and also gets him tons of media attention. I can't believe there isn't some intent in that.

Could you expand on what you mean? I do think he is being intentionally provocative with the way he approaches the search of extraterrestrial intelligence, but I don’t think this is a bad thing per se.

It's basically just the "I'm not saying it was aliens" meme. https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/158329-ancient-aliens

Does he say it's a possibility? I haven't found it mentioned in any of the posts (haven't read them all yet)

Yes he’s clearly aware that it’s early days in the analysis of these specimens. It’s not like there’s a quota for how many words a researcher gets to say between skeptical phrases. The thing that matters is whether they’re being led by data or by desired outcome.

Have you got a link to where he said that about these fragments?

If you read the post I linked he talks about what specific signatures his team plans to look for to determine if these objects are naturally occurring or artificial in nature.

The only categorical claim he has made about this object is that is originated from outside our solar system

It's a tiny part of that post, easy to overlook:

> The fundamental question we will address is whether the elements and radioactive isotopes in the spherules have different abundances than solar system materials. If so, we would also check for any anomalies that might indicate a technological origin.

Also a possibility he found dragon tears or beads of Lucifer’s sweat. Did he consider those possibilities?

Someone send a large Occam’s Razor please.

Cheers, I thought that would be garbage, totally out of character for him.

I don't like him I think.... but compared to academics and hit jobs like these he's a better scientist, maybe this is his way of fighting the fall of science, bring back the chaos of true science.

The vacuum around exactly how unusual ʻOumuamua was allowed him to flourish.

How can we put so much money into astronomy and they don't bother to care about interstellar objects and intuitively know how common they should be. (Very few articles had modeled it previously)

This isn't the first time Loeb has shouted "aliens!" Previously he said Ouamuamua was aliens based on a hunch, and after the news got their hands on it and declared aliens to the public, astronomers were understandably peeved with him and asked him not to shout "aliens!" unilaterally based on a hunch. Loeb didn't take it well. There's an amazing clip where he rants about how he is the only one serious about finding extraterrestrial intelligence... To a room full of career SETI astronomers.

Here's a video essay about him. (People who have a strong preference for direct/to the point videos would probably be better served seeking out another source, I feel like this video adds interesting context but I know a lot of you would feel it's fluff.)

https://youtube.com/watch?v=aY985qzn7oI

It's a shame that this looks like it's being downvoted - the linked video is one of the better put together presentations about scientific skepticism that happens to be centered on Avi Loeb. The presenter articulates a few problems with Loeb specifically, but also more systemic problems with science communication far better than I could.

Why not share that clip instead of an hour long disambiguation? I’d like to see it but it’s very hard to find based on your description

If you rephrase this as a polite request for help, rather than as a criticism for failing to anticipate your particular tastes, then I'll be happy to find it for you.

I’m not sure how that came across as criticism but I apologize if it did

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