Don't get me wrong. This is a great strip.
But Oumuamua's old news. These days everyone's overreacting to Dyson swarms.
(You have to get about halfway through the articles to find out that the researchers have said that these anomalies have more mundane explanations and probably aren't alien mega-structures, but that's not a catchy headline.)
Even Loeb has moved on.
This one has the best punchline.
Featured on NPR (of course): https://www.npr.org/2022/08/31/1119941103/astronomer-searches-ocean-extraterrestrial-meteor-alien-life-avi-loeb
ReplyDeleteKey quote: "Loeb and Siraj submitted a paper making their case to a peer-reviewed astronomy journal. The paper was rejected because their data was incomplete. Some of the data relied on observations from classified missile detection systems, making Loeb and Siraj's estimates of the object's velocity impossible for reviewers to verify.
But in April, a memo published by U.S. Space Command seemed to confirm that the object came from another star system."
They do quote some skeptics but without the full context on Loeb.
How could he be a crank? He's from Harvard! Same place as the promoter of the Gospel of Jesus's Wife.
And, of course, he's featured on Freakonomics: https://freakonomics.com/podcast/do-we-have-evidence-of-alien-life/
And Sean Carroll: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2021/01/25/131-avi-loeb-on-taking-aliens-seriously/
And Joe Rogan: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0y7Vfzeua0TyLSAq3CUktH
These people have endlessly-deep reservoirs of credulity.
I mean, sure, anything is possible, nobody should be silenced. If Loeb has some wacky idea, he should feel free to go for it. The issue here is opportunity cost. Think of all the actual legit researchers working on actually interesting topics who don't get covered because NPR, Freakonomics, etc etc are all too busy giving a fair hearing to the latest Ivy League snake-oil salesman.
Andrew