Interstellar: La ricerca della vita extraterrestre

by Avi Loeb

Quando, nell'ottobre 2017, i telescopi dell'osservatorio delle Hawaii intercettarono un oggetto interstellare mentre attraversava il nostro sistema solare, l'ipotesi che si trattasse di un manufatto extraterrestre suscitò le perplessità di gran parte della comunità scientifica. Eppure, la probabilità che 'Oumuamua, l'«esploratore» - così venne battezzato l'oggetto sconosciuto -, fosse il prodotto di una più evoluta tecnologia aliena rimane elevata. Negli ultimi anni, le prove della presenza di forme di vita e di civiltà extraterrestri, e del loro interesse nei nostri confronti, sono aumentate e nel 2022 il governo degli Stati Uniti ha ammesso la possibilità di fenomeni aerei non identificati, mobilitando risorse e finanziamenti al fine di confermarne l'esistenza. Ma cosa succederà quando le evidenze raccolte si riveleranno inconfutabili? Per Avi Loeb, direttore del dipartimento di astronomia alla Harvard University, quel momento non è affatto lontano. I nostri «vicini cosmici» stanno bussando alla porta e dovremo essere pronti ad accoglierli. Perché da questo dipenderà il futuro della specie umana. Sappiamo infatti che un giorno il Sole si espanderà distruggendo la Terra. E sappiamo anche che le guerre, le epidemie, i cambiamenti climatici, il progressivo degrado della «biglia blu» che ci ospita rappresentano per noi una concreta minaccia esistenziale. L'umanità si trova quindi di fronte a un estinguersi oppure avventurarsi tra le stelle, verso altri pianeti e oltre il sistema solare. A quel punto, l'incontro con una civiltà molto più progredita della nostra sarà inevitabile. Combinando scienza, fisica e filosofia, Avi Loeb ci mostra come, ancora una volta, la nostra sopravvivenza dipenderà dalla nostra capacità di affidarci alla scienza, perché il futuro è là dove noi umani vorremo spingerci, là dove le attuali e future conoscenze ci consentiranno di arrivare.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Space, Astronomy, Aliens, Physics, Nature

293 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 29, 2023

About the author

Abraham (Avi) Loeb is the Frank B. Baird, Jr., Professor of Science at Harvard University and a bestselling author (in lists of the New York Times,Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, Die Zeit, Der Spiegel, L'Express and more). He received a PhD in Physics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel at age 24 (1980-1986), led the first international project supported by the Strategic Defense Initiative (1983-1988), and was subsequently a long-term member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton (1988-1993). Loeb has written 8 books, including most recently, Extraterrestrial (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2021), and about 800 papers (with an h-index of 114) on a wide range of topics, including black holes, the first stars, the search for extraterrestrial life and the future of the Universe. He had been the longest serving Chair of Harvard's Department of Astronomy (2011-2020), Founding Director of Harvard's Black Hole Initiative (2016-2021) and Director of the Institute for Theory and Computation (2007-present) within the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics . He is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the American Physical Society, and the International Academy of Astronautics. Loeb is a former member of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) at the White House, a former chair of the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Academies (2018-2021) and a current member of the Advisory Board for "Einstein: Visualize the Impossible" of the Hebrew University. He also chairs the Advisory Committee for the Breakthrough Starshot Initiative (2016-present) and serves as the Science Theory Director for all Initiatives of the Breakthrough Prize Foundation. In 2012, TIME magazine selected Loeb as one of the 25 most influential people in space and in 2020 Loeb was selected among the 14 most inspiring Israelis of the last decade.

Reviews

[Cav · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Over just the past decade the evidence of extraterrestrial life, extraterrestrial civilizations, and extraterrestrial interest in us has mounted rapidly..."

Interstellar was an interesting book, but I found the writing a bit slow at times. It is my second from the author, after his 2021 book Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth, which I enjoyed. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this one quite as much as his first book. The author drops the quote above in the book's intro.

Author Abraham "Avi" Loeb (Hebrew: אברהם (אבי) לייב‎) is an Israeli-American theoretical physicist who works on astrophysics and cosmology. Loeb is the Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard University. He had been the longest serving chair of Harvard's Department of Astronomy (2011–2020), founding director of Harvard's Black Hole Initiative (since 2016) and director of the Institute for Theory and Computation (since 2007) within the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Avi Loeb:


I have been interested in the topic of possible alien life since I was just a little kid. Who doesn't find the idea that we are not alone incredibly exciting? What would alien life look like? How advanced could their civilizations be? Are the reports of visits to Earth actually true?? These are a few of the questions that captured my imagination then - and now.

Loeb gets the writing here off on a good foot, with a well-written intro. Once relegated to the realm of tinfoil hat-wearing conspiracy; the topic of extraterrestrials is slowly making its way into the mainstream, with science being dragged kicking and screaming into the discussion.

He mentions the growing body of evidence for the existence of these phenomena, once called "UFOs," and now colloquially known as "Unidentified Aeriel Phenomenon" or "UAPs." Particularly notable are the reports of these coming from American military installations, and an admission by the US Government that they actually don't know what these objects are.

The quote from the start of this review continues:

"...The possibility of life on Mars and Venus is being explored. The statistical likelihood of life existing on one of the innumerable exoplanets in a star’s habitable zone is high, and soon to be explored by spacecraft capable of sending data back within a human lifetime. Most importantly, for the first time, the search for near-Earth extraterrestrial artifacts is the work of science, privately and publicly funded. Whether or not humanity persists long enough to get off its home planet and to exist independent of its home star is on us. And, if we are diligent, smart, and intrepid, just maybe we manage this with an extraterrestrial assist."

Central to the book's case is the documentation of an unexplained interstellar object that entered our solar system in 2017. Called "Oumuamua," it is compelling, says Loeb, because it exhibited non-gravitational acceleration. He writes this:

"Data support the possibility that in 2017 an extraterrestrial-manufactured artifact passed through the Solar system. That year, astronomers, using data collected by the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) located at Haleakala Observatory, Hawaii, identified an interstellar object1 that they called ‘Oumuamua, which translates to “scout” in Hawaiian. Based on the wealth of empirical data collected about the object, I argued that it was most plausibly of extraterrestrial manufacture, rather than a naturally occurring interstellar rock.
The data revealed that ‘Oumuamua’s shape—long and remarkably flat— was to an extreme degree unlike any space object seen before. The data also showed to a certainty that its unusual trajectory around the Sun was changed, not by any visible outgassing such as occurs with all comets, but most likely due to it being pushed by solar radiation, just like NASA’s rocket booster, 2020 SO, which was discovered by Pan-STARRS on September 17, 2020.
Then there was ‘Oumuamua’s extraordinarily low velocity at the point when our Solar system encountered it, which was measured at what astronomers call the Local Standard of Rest (LSR). In space everything is moving relative to everything else. An object at “rest,” such as ‘Oumuamua, is an object with a velocity that makes it comparatively still among all that movement. This is rare. ‘Oumuamua’s being at the LSR made it an outlier to 99.8% of all stars. Nature infrequently puts objects at the LSR. If, however, humans wished to manufacture an object and place it at the LSR, that would be well within our technological know-how. And that is why I likened ‘Oumuamua to a buoy our Solar system ran into rather than a rocket aimed at our Solar system..."

Loeb is somewhat of an outlier among his peers, as many of them remain skeptical, despite this compelling evidence. The cultural zeitgeist around the topic of UFOs, or UAPs still remains somewhat taboo and fringe. Most of the mainstream scientific community does not seem open to exploring the idea that we are not alone, and are reluctant to give this evidence too much credulity.
Loeb writes:

"What was a little more surprising—and disappointing—was the fact that on Day Two, and continuing over Years One through Five, a majority of the scientific community expressed a skepticism about this evidence that was greater than anything directed at scientific speculations such as string theory, types of dark matter, and multiverses. This is despite the fact that to date we have no empirical data demonstrating a theorized string, a dark matter particle, or a single universe other than our own. Scientists, in other words, are more comfortable asserting the existence of phenomena they have no empirical evidence for than accepting the possible existence of a phenomenon—Extraterrestrial Civilization (ETC)—for which we do."

Some more of what is covered here by Loeb includes:
• Recent UAP reports by the US military
• Speace telescopes
• Space exploration
• The Drake Equation
• The Fermi Paradox
• The Kardashev scale of civilizations
• The IM1 meteor
• Our technological future
• Noah’s Spacecraft

********************

Interstellar was a decent read, but ultimately, it did not live up to my expectations. I am admittedly fairly picky about how lively the books I read are, and this one left a bit to be desired for me here...
There was still some interesting information presented here, though.
3 stars.

[Danny · Rating 2 out of 5]

A real shame. This book alternates between repetitive rambling over and over, and what appears to be a pitch for funding. Not engaging, and distracting to read. I guess the limited story of Oumuamua can only be dragged out so far.

[Mai H.]

Non-fiction November TBR

📱 Thank you to NetGalley and Mariner Books

[James Easterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

1. Interestingly, I bought this book off the shelf at Barnes and Noble on Aug 17, 2023; 19 days before it was supposed to go on sale to the public.
2. I could provide a number of fine intelligent quotes from this book, but for the most part Avi Loeb seems to live in a dream world built on his own standard bias take of the status of extraterrestrial civilizations. A bit too much to swallow.
3. As to the main assumptions in this book all I can say is Good luck with all that!
4. As for my own take on things, Listen people, there is no planet B we can escape to! This is it! If we don’t take care of things now we won’t even make a couple of more centuries, let alone Loeb’s 2 billion years from now when the sun blows up! Yes there will be life elsewhere. The vast majority will be microbial. Advanced life much more rare. Distance, the toxicity of space, the context of matching up time slots, and basic differences in life forms, will make contact exceedingly rare if at all. Migration to another world I would think would be near zero chance. AI robotics and a lot of time seems to be the only option other than speed of light communications.
5. If we are being visited how awesome and mind altering that would be. We’ll see.

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Minus the long chapters (ch. 1 was 25 pages long), overall I found this to be a worthy read. It deals with a lot of hypotheticals and possible scenarios, but that's what I enjoyed about it. Whether you believe Omuamua was of extraterrestrial/interstellar origin is besides the point. Loeb makes some valid points. Despite the controversy I've heard about this scientist, there will always be controversy in the UFO community from the community itself to skeptics alike which is why it doesn't bother me. Overall this book was very satisfying and definitely worth a re-read.

[Kelly Whitt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read an advanced copy of this book. I loved Avi’s last book, but this one did not engage me as much. It felt more rambling and like a word salad. I certainly took away a few good points, but overall it was a miss. The summer sea voyage for interstellar material happened after the book was written. The UAP stuff I find unconvincing. And I’m not very interested in the faith aspect.

[David Agranoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the coolest moments I have had on my podcast was the episode when I interviewed my favorite Astronomer Avi Loeb. I know not everyone has a favorite astronomer, but I most certainly do. He is an exciting figure in space exploration, at least in the context that can be done researching from the ground. He is also not the most popular person in the field willing to use his intense imagination as a tool in his astronomy tool kit. That sometimes causes eye-rolling by the old guard. Doctor Loeb has a science fiction mind but is not driven to write narratives.

He tells stories in the context of theory and teaching, and he is good at that. That is how he comes up with wild ideas like breakthrough star shot, which are box ideas for sending laser-guided probes to alpha centauri. Or why he courted controversy by insisting and writing a book suggesting Oumuamua was proof that it was technology from extraterrestrial life.

Interstellar is not for me, even though I am a huge Avi Loeb fan. The fact is that I listen to all his interviews so the book doesn't break a ton of new ground for me. One of the main points he is making is that our species needs to become an interstellar species and how we might interact with the wider universe.

Much like Dawn of the Mindful Universe, I think an essay could make this point but it is easier to promote and sell any idea as an entire book. as the dust jacket says "Combining cutting-edge science, physics, and philosophy, Interstellar revolutionizes the approach to our search for extraterrestrial life and our preparation for its discovery."

Indeed and as such if you are a person who values our place in a wider universe, wants to understand our wider universe, and wants to see our species grow up Avi Loeb makes several important points about why and how we could make it there. Important stuff.

[Italo De Nubila · Rating 1 out of 5]

Many dreams and hopes, very little facts. I was hoping for something more concrete. Clearer ideas. All this was, was the hopes of an old man sad to not be able to see/fulfill his dream. I just wasted my time and money on this one.

[Ula Tardigrade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Avi Loeb, a longtime and respected professor of astrophysics, gained public attention after declaring that Oumuamua, a space object discovered in 2017, was most likely of extraterrestrial origin. While the discussion of UFOs has become more scientific in recent years, Loeb is still the most prominent academic figure calling for the issue to be treated with all seriousness. He strongly believes in humanity's interstellar future and has devoted all of his energy to making it a reality. His latest book focuses on the Galileo Project, which aims to detect and identify evidence of extraterrestrial civilizations.

The book is well written and full of interesting ideas, inspiring even if you don't share the author's optimism about our future. It is also an ode to the scientific method and human reason. I recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about astrophysics and cosmology.

Thanks to the publisher, Mariner Books, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

[Icy-Cobwebs-Crossing-SpaceTime · Rating 5 out of 5]

INTERSTELLAR is a tremendously inspirational, exciting, adventurous, forward-thinking work of Science nonfiction . Dr. Avi Loeb is a genius scientist, in my opinion, and even more importantly, his mind is open. Much of his convictions closely resonate with and encourage my own. (My only point of exception is his thought that Science Fiction as a genre has tended to be utilized as a backdrop to play familiar tropes. I think not, as there are a number of writers, past and present, who diligently explore "the big questions," which creates the most exciting kind of SF, I think.) In all other respects I have intense respect for INTERSTELLAR and I am eager to read his earlier work, EXTRATERRESTRIAL [speaking of mainstream publications rather than Scientific and Academic publications].

[Nestor · Rating 1 out of 5]

When I read the book's title I had high expectations, now I can say without a doubt that this book is what I called, like Religion and Cryptocurrency, a mental jack-off. The book is to justify(or ask for) funds for his Galileo Project. It's based on assumptions that can't be proven. I put this book at the same level as Geoengineered Transhumanism: How the Environment Has Been Weaponized by Chemicals, Electromagnetics, & Nanotechnology for Synthetic Biology, and the author at the same level as "The Clown" Michio Kaku.

If the author can believe in imaginary beings like "god" which can't be proven to exist, he can believe in anything. I don't say that ET Civilization doesn't exist at all or we shouldn't look for them. I just say that we don't have any direct feasible, believable observation of them yet, The Galileo Project might help but it's far away from being a truly scientific project, it's more of a hobby. I hate when books, like this, are used as very long commercial brochures to promote the author's pitty project.

In the second part of the book, he attempts to philosophize about the need to devote some of our resources to ET explorations, which I think is good to do. Look up to our skies and enrich our souls, but he fails miserably since he has no preparation to do so.

When I said that from now on "The Jester" Avi Loeb is at the same level as "The Clown" Michio Kaku refers for example to "...What follows is technical..." and presents 6 numbers referring to a meteor speed and pressure ...six numbers !!!! Whoo that's too technical, like the "mysterious" Quantum Mechanics from "The Clown" jajaja....

I am fed up that third-class scientists like The Jester" Avi Loeb and "The Clown" Michio Kaku continue to criticize Albert Einstein about the "spooky action". After all, he developed the relativity theory and the photoelectric effect, and his continuous questioning of QM made other people think about answers and experiments to his mind-blowing questions while these(The Jester and The Clown) third-class jackass scientists have done nothing valuable, not even writing good Popular Science books.

Writing a Popular Science book doesn't mean, like "The Jester" and "The Clown" do, that there's no need to explain things, and assuming that readers are idiots and language has to be kept simple. There are excellent books out there, very popular and very well written, like Lost in Math: How Beauty Leads Physics Astray by Sabine Hossenfelder or The Magick of Physics: Uncovering the Fantastical Phenomena in Everyday Life by Felix Flickerthat proves that.

A few observations:
If ʻOumuamua is real Extraterrestrial object :
-- Why we haven't detected any communication (radio wave or similar not us but with the
builders)? Waiting for "Extraterrestrial people" to "download" collected that from Earth(or
other civilizations) from it is not a viable option. Just collecting data for random(or even
planned) trajectories is not worthing. It would take too long to have any valuable information
for anyone. A lost ET scouter? Maybe but what for?
-- Why was it so big? Even our limited technology satellites(Voyager, etc.) to collect basic data are
much, much smaller. Making to be noticed is not an option either since we detect ʻOumuamua,
but couldn't see it directly, so it's not worth it.
-- UAP has been photographed but again, Why no communication has been detected?
-- Ok. Let's suppose for a moment that ʻOumuamua is an ET detected by Pan-STARRS. How would
they know that we detected it? How would they know we have the technology to do so? and
Again how do they communicate the findings? At least with Voyager small as it is, have a plate
with our information, if somebody, somehow detects it and looks for it.
-- Phrase from the book " What NASA hasn’t yet built is the observatory capable of mapping small
near-Earth objects, identifying their qualities such that the most outlier objects suggesting a
manufactured origin are noted --->
* Complete BS, NASA has a debris radar
(https://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/me...) that can detect objects as small as
5 mm. How could it not detect "alien" non-man-made exploration objects if they truly exist
and have abnormal behavior? Even NASA has NEO
(https://www.nasa.gov/planetary-defens...) for Near-Earth Object observations. Yeah, is
not exactly an "Alien, ET" observation program, but if there is any unusual it will (would have
been) observed.
-- Read the following phrase from the book ..."2 billion years after the planet was formed, the
level of oxygen in the atmosphere rose sharply, enabling the emergence of complex life
forms. Why the rise? We don’t know"
* BS this book explains how: Oxygen: A Four Billion Year History Donald E. Canfield
* In chapter 9, he writes ...." note that 2.4 billion years ago Earth’s atmosphere went
from oxygen-poor to oxygen-rich due to cyanobacteria suddenly multiplying and, through
photosynthesis, changing the planet’s atmosphere...." ---> Come on man, earlier you
mentioned that we don't how oxygen on earth was produced and now you copy the argument
of the book that I mentioned!!!! What a Jester the author is.!!!!
-- All humans should petition their leaders for greater transparency as to the data already held by
governments, but still kept secret.
* BS...How if it's transparent can't be secret.
-- " With the excuse of looking for interstellar civilizations that are observing or living on Earth,
they do this project to detect threats, without a doubt the perfect excuse for the Pentagon to be
involved" ---> Another Conspiracy Theory right under our noses.
-- I've just laughed at the following statement..."This method depends on our ability to propel
a craft by manipulating the cosmic dark energy that makes up most of the vacuum of space" --
-> 1) We don't know what dark energy is and he wanted to use it to propel a spaceship 2)
Then he explained that he would use vacuum negative pressure and Einstein's relativity
equations to propel the spaceship which is NOT, in any way, dark energy at all...as I said
he's at the same level as Michio "The Clown" Kaku.
-- Look at the following phrase ..."The payloads of these crafts will not be burdened by fuel,
allowing them, in principle, to reach speeds very near that of light."... The equation that
governs the mass vs speed is m=mo/sqrt(1-v^2/c^2), so if we approach the speed of light mass
would be close to infinite. For example, if the original mass(mo) would be 1kg at 99% speed of
light the mass would be about 10 kg!!! That would require an energy of 6x10^11 Joules, which is
3,000 times the energy of a small meteorite(1kg) moving at 20,000 m/s!!!! We know that
moving near the speed of light is impossible, would he know?
-- Another stupid moment talking about Black Holes at the center of a galaxy and the luminosity of
surrounding stars..." I suggested that they [two other science groups] plot the correlation with
velocity dispersion instead"...If it was so certain that he has the answer and it was a breakthru
why in the hell he didn't do it by himself!!!!
-- The Jester (or the Jerk?) in Chapter 10 is promoting AI as if it were another "god", It seems that
humanity? (or the Jester) always needs a "god", he thinks that Artificial Intelligence is a new
"god" that will save it from its calamities. We will only survive by our abilities. NOT to any
"god", not by AI sent to the "stars".
-- To the moment when technological selection obviates natural selection.---> He's another who
thinks that the argument from technological inevitability is a vivid and compelling one.


Despite all those flaws and wishful thinking, I liked that at least he tries to focus our view on
seeing the stars and beyond our noses, and not to be lighted by virtual worlds computer
simulations. That's why I give one star to the book.

[Sarah B · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was looking forward to reading this but instead I had found myself very disappointed by the writing in here. Instead of fascinating stuff about interstellar objects like Oumuamua the book is very scatterbrained. I often found myself very distracted and actually confused about what I had read. And I have never been confused by a nonfiction book before (bored, yes, but not confused). In my opinion this book needs some serious editing. That might fix it. I don't know.

The subjects in here range widely, from virtual reality to long pages on the movie Thelma + Louise; from ideas on how to find interstellar objects (plus the amount of money needed for that) to the different types of civilization. Unfortunately we are the type that is ruining our home planet. According to the author, we are making backwards progress.

The trouble is this book is just not interesting at all. The author uses a lot of words but seems to say very little. Weird, I know. He seems also to return to the same topics multiple times too. It's all rather dry and dull.

Only a small portion of the book actually covered the main topic of searching space for interstellar objects. He does describe what is needed for that and how we would need incredibly fast craft to catch up to these fast moving objects. And how we need other devices to watch for UAP in the sky - the question is where to put them??

To be honest I am still confused how I have managed to read all of those pages yet I feel I am unsure what I have read or actually learned. It's a very bizarre experience. I think it's due to the writing style: it's cluttered with "extra" stuff. But it's not a memoir either. Perhaps that would have been better? But this "extra" stuff comes along and sidetracks the main topic and then you are pondering what you are reading. Then my mind was thinking about other things and hoping the book would end soon.

Very dull.

[Patrick Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a brilliant book. It is the hard science of rigorously looking for the existence of extraterrestrials. Avi is a respected scientist, he follows the science. He was hope for humanity, he has hope for the future, and he is planning his role. This is exactly the kind of book and approach to the search for extraterrestrials that I have been looking for.

It was a bit long winded and repetitive, but still enjoyable.

Science at spirituality, Sagan, The Galileo Project

[Steven J · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this book covers a very interesting topic that is very hard to contextualize, and of course, provide answers to our most pressing questions such as “Are we alone“? “Have we been visited by more advanced civilizations”? While it is interesting to read the authors thoughts about these questions the book rambles on a bit too much on each topic.

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Avi Loeb’s *Interstellar: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life and Our Future in the Stars* arrives like a follow-up transmission from a restless, rebellious mind that refuses to be bound by Earth’s provincial caution.

Having already provoked the scientific establishment with *Extraterrestrial*, Loeb here doubles down—not merely asking whether we’re alone, but whether we’ll stay that way if we continue to think so small. He is not content with gazing at alien civilizations; he wants us to *become* the kind of civilization others might one day discover.

It’s an audacious shift of perspective: what if the ultimate search for extraterrestrial life is, in the end, an act of self-reinvention? The book’s prose is brisk, luminous, and surprisingly personal—equal parts physics lecture, speculative manifesto, and quiet memoir of a scientist learning to think dangerously again.

What immediately distinguishes *Interstellar* is its fusion of hard astrophysical reasoning with something like moral philosophy. Loeb doesn’t just map out where and how we might detect life beyond Earth; he lays out why such a search matters existentially. In a world addicted to short-termism—politically, environmentally, and even scientifically—Loeb insists that humanity’s future depends on reclaiming cosmic ambition. “Our civilization,” he suggests, “is like a teenager testing its limits.”

That simile recurs through his work: the adolescent species that has mastered technology but not wisdom, that can reach the stars yet still squabbles over borders and dogmas. Loeb, ever the contrarian, treats that immaturity not as doom but as opportunity. The cosmos, vast and unjudging, offers a kind of therapy: a perspective that could humble us into sanity.

There’s a rhetorical rhythm to Loeb’s writing that’s almost Socratic. He sets up a consensus assumption, teases it with a disarming “But what if,” and then unfurls a chain of logic that turns convention inside out. Where most astrophysicists are comfortable dismissing interstellar visitors as implausible, Loeb demands empirical humility.

His reasoning—though occasionally speculative—is anchored in data: the trajectories of interstellar objects like ‘Oumuamua, the physics of light sails, the probabilities embedded in the Drake equation. But what fascinates him most is not the math itself; it’s how the math reshapes meaning. Every discovery, he argues, is also an ethical test.

If we confirm intelligent life elsewhere, how would we interpret our own behavior on this planet? How would our wars, our consumerism, our politics look when framed against billions of silent galaxies? Loeb’s voice, at once urgent and oddly tender, asks us to measure ourselves by the standards of cosmic intelligence rather than local convenience.

Stylistically, *Interstellar* has an edge that distinguishes it from the cosmic-wonder genre popularized by Carl Sagan or Neil deGrasse Tyson. Loeb’s tone is more insurgent, less reverential. He’s not afraid to challenge NASA’s priorities, the complacency of academic peer review, or even the timidity of billionaire space entrepreneurs.

His complaint is not that we dream too much, but that we’ve outsourced dreaming to institutions that fear embarrassment. For Loeb, the danger isn’t failure—it’s apathy. He recalls the boldness of the early explorers, those who crossed oceans without maps. Today’s equivalent, he argues, would be sending self-replicating probes to neighboring star systems, letting our robotic descendants seed curiosity through the galaxy. It’s a thrilling, slightly eerie image: humanity as a viral intelligence, spreading knowledge faster than biology can follow.

Yet beneath the visionary rhetoric lies an undercurrent of melancholy. Loeb repeatedly invokes the fragility of our window of opportunity. Climate change, nuclear risk, political myopia—all could ground us permanently. He warns that civilizations, like stars, have life cycles: birth, brilliance, burnout.

The Fermi Paradox—“Where is everybody?”—might not signify our solitude but our species’ youth. Perhaps intelligent life tends to self-destruct before it can achieve interstellar maturity. The implication is grim, yet Loeb handles it with an almost parental compassion. If we can recognize our adolescence, he seems to say, we can grow up before it’s too late. That’s the book’s subtle moral: exploration isn’t escapism—it’s responsibility extended to the cosmic scale.

Loeb’s scientific expositions, though dense in places, maintain an inviting lucidity. He explains interstellar propulsion, radiation hazards, and signal detection with a pedagogue’s clarity. His metaphors, drawn from daily life, anchor abstract physics in the familiar. He likens light sails to dandelion seeds, spacecraft trajectories to billiard shots on a cosmic table, the search for biosignatures to “listening for whispers at a rock concert.”

That playful imagery keeps the reader aloft even when the equations recede into background hum. At times he flirts with poetry: describing the Milky Way as a “rotating archive of cosmic history,” or a distant exoplanet as “a silent mirror that could one day show us our own reflection.” For a Harvard astrophysicist, Loeb writes with striking emotional transparency.

But it’s also a deeply personal book. Loeb recounts growing up on an Israeli farm, gazing at the stars while tending to chickens. The irony delights him: that someone who once shoveled feed now ponders galactic civilizations. That humility keeps the narrative grounded. He speaks candidly about the backlash he received after publishing *Extraterrestrial*—the accusations of sensationalism, the subtle ostracism from peers. *Interstellar* becomes, in part, his philosophical answer to that resistance. “Science,” he writes, “is not a consensus; it’s a conversation.” That line encapsulates his ethos. He positions himself not as a maverick crank but as a romantic realist, someone unwilling to let bureaucratic caution dampen humanity’s natural curiosity.

The structure of *Interstellar* mirrors its theme of expansion. It begins intimately—with Earth, our fragile oasis—and gradually widens its orbit to the solar system, the galaxy, and the possibility of galactic federations of intelligence. Along the way, Loeb wrestles with paradoxes: how to detect technosignatures that might be millions of years old, how to interpret silence that might be deliberate. His speculation about “archaeological astronomy”—the search for ancient alien artifacts—is both thrilling and unnerving.

He proposes that interstellar probes or debris might already populate our cosmic neighborhood, unnoticed because we aren’t looking creatively enough. It’s a call for epistemic flexibility: maybe discovery isn’t about inventing new tools, but about training ourselves to *see*.

What makes *Interstellar* resonate beyond its scientific content is Loeb’s moral optimism. He refuses the nihilism that often haunts discussions of the cosmos. The universe may be indifferent, but that doesn’t absolve us of meaning; it amplifies the urgency to create it. Loeb’s optimism is pragmatic, not naïve.

He acknowledges the vast odds, the hostile distances, the fragility of human institutions—but he insists that purpose itself is a kind of propulsion. “We are cosmic embryos,” he suggests, “learning to breathe vacuum.” That phrase captures the weird beauty of his worldview: half prophetic, half engineering brief. The book ultimately becomes less about aliens than about ethics, less about stars than about stewardship.

Of course, *Interstellar* is not without its skeptics’ fodder. Some of Loeb’s extrapolations—particularly regarding technological civilizations and light-sail probes—can feel speculative even by generous scientific standards. But that’s part of the book’s charm. He is transparent about conjecture, marking clearly where data ends and wonder begins. And in a field often paralyzed by risk aversion, his willingness to hypothesize boldly feels liberating.

Even when he’s wrong, he’s productively wrong: wrong in ways that force better questions. Few scientists today manage that delicate alchemy between rigor and rebellion. Loeb makes you want to pick up a telescope—or at least question your assumptions about the silence between stars.

In its final chapters, *Interstellar* arcs toward an almost spiritual reflection on destiny. Loeb suggests that intelligence, wherever it arises, might be the universe’s way of achieving self-awareness. If so, then our evolution is not an accident but a cosmic inevitability. To explore space, then, is to fulfill a kind of universal imperative: to let consciousness circulate.

That idea flirts with metaphysics, but Loeb wields it with restraint, framing it as poetic conjecture rather than doctrine. It’s a gorgeous conceit—the notion that the Milky Way might one day remember itself through us. He even hints that our descendants, human or machine, could transcend biology entirely, transforming exploration into an act of continuity rather than conquest.

The emotional crescendo arrives not in scientific revelation but in ethical clarity. Loeb closes with an appeal that feels both ancient and futuristic: that curiosity is our oldest survival instinct, and its suppression our gravest threat. To seek the stars is not escapism but homage—to life, to potential, to the improbable intelligence that wrote this very sentence.

When Loeb imagines future historians of the cosmos, he does not picture alien judges tallying our sins; he pictures collaborators, other sparks of awareness adding footnotes to the same grand story. In that vision, science and spirituality reconcile—not through miracles, but through perspective.

Reading *Interstellar* feels like standing on a cliff at dusk, watching the first stars appear, and realizing they’ve been shining all along. Loeb’s voice—steadfast, lyrical, faintly mischievous—reminds you that wonder is a renewable resource. If his detractors accuse him of dreaming too loudly, perhaps that’s the point. The future belongs to those willing to be unreasonable in the service of awe. *Interstellar* is, in that sense, not merely a book but an act of resistance: against cynicism, against institutional timidity, against the gravitational pull of the ordinary.

When the final page turns, you’re left with a peculiar aftertaste—part exhilaration, part humility. You start glancing at the night sky differently, wondering whether some other intelligence, somewhere, is asking its version of our questions. Loeb’s genius lies in making that wonder feel both personal and participatory.

We are not passive observers of the cosmos; we are its newest experiment in curiosity. *Interstellar* leaves you believing that exploration is not optional but inevitable—that the road to the stars begins not with rockets, but with imagination brave enough to refuse the limits of fear.

[Stephen Power · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book more. There is a lot of wonder in here, especially when it comes to using dark matter as a propellant and the tiny sailed nanocrafts powered by lasers that could be our first interstellar probes. I also appreciated hearing about the author's other papers and just the behind the scenes look at how science gets done: a person has an idea, perhaps strange, then does some research (or has a colleague do it) and finds its not so strange an idea at all (or, better still, the idea is dismissed by another scientist at strange, whose own work then proves it's not and has to eat crow).

But the book ultimately reads like a cross between a grant proposal and a TED talk arguing for why science should putting more money into the study of extraterrestrial objects instead of stigmatizing it. I agree with Loeb's argument too. His points are all solid. It' s just I could have gotten to yes in 40 pages instead of 200, and I would have preferred that the other 160 pages were filled with more nanocrafts and cool scientific ideas.

[Paul Frandano · Rating 3 out of 5]

Often a slog, unexplained scientific jargon, a great deal of Harvard don Avi Loeb's genius, offered from the source itself, and more, but...the book will be useful, particularly for those who do in fact believe that "we are not alone" in the universe and especially for astrophysics readers who are willing to tolerate a good deal of repetition to ferret out the nuggets. I'm now reading Loeb's earlier Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligence Life Beyond Earth, and it's a more popular, easier to read book for a variety of reasons, specifically directed to the non-scientific but thoughtful crowd of readers. I would recommend the earlier book, then tackle Interstellar, for me a 2.5 rounded up to 3.0.

[Brenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved Loeb’s previous book, Extraterrestrial, but I was unfortunately a bit bored by this one. Lacking the focussed topic like Oumuamua in Extraterrestrial, this book didn’t get in to the nitty gritty science like I wanted it to. I think it would be more interesting for someone without prior knowledge of the UAP arena as it provides a good summary of research projects past, present and future.

[⚫㊐✨Heather Mc Erlean❦㈦㊏ · Rating 5 out of 5]

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!

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Mariner Books for an advance copy of this book on the science of first contact, life in the universe and wait the future might hold for us.

As a long time science fiction fan I have read a lot of first contact novels. All sorts from genre to hard science, pulpy to militaristic. Some like the militaristic have aliens and humans fighting, with each other, sometimes against a larger foe, but usually first contact begins with a bang. Some are more hopeful, aliens and humans find something not to kill each other over, and might work together for a common goal. Whatever the outcome, human life is changed forever. In 2021 the American Pentagon released information dealing with Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon. This used to be called Unidentified Flying Objects aka UFOs, but the military has to military and uses language to obfuscate by habit. The report listed that yes the Pentagon listed numerous incidents about UAPs, and had no idea what they were, or where they came from. And nothing changed on Earth. People went back to 24 hour news on Trump or probably the British Royal Family. The American Military, one not to tell the truth about bombing civilians, losing nuclear weapons, or anything admitted something like possible aliens air craft and the collective response, outside of podcasts, conspiracy sites and Coast to Coast listeners was eh. Avi Loeb, Professor of Science at Harvard could understand this. Loeb's own work had been pretty much ignored. His book Interstellar: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life and Our Future in the Stars is a semi-response and a call to arms, or better a call to observatories, detailing how the Earth should plan for contact with life from other planets, and what the future might hold.

The book begins with a brief summation of the object known better as Ounuamua, that was detected by our sun, and began to move in ways that did not follow the rules of science, nor what a comet as many called it would do. Loeb saw this as well not proof, but something that defied conventional math and science, and could be considered something that was not natural but created by another intelligence. Loeb points out the fact that in many ways we are unprepared for first contact, and that many people would probably care very little about what was happening. Loeb also sketches out plans that will involve more than the military, as this might be something that shooting first, covering up later might not be the best way to go about things. There are discussions on realpolitik with aliens, the need for more civilian plans, and more importantly funding. Loeb also explains some of his projects which will hopefully address a lot of the questions he is raising, including work at sites that might have suspected UAP crashes here on Earth.

An interesting book that really looks at alien contact through not only science but from a political point of view. Loeb is a very good writer, and raises questions and answers them with aplomb. For every well that doesn't make sense, Loeb explains why it does make sense, and why there should be more discussions. There is a lot of information, but nothing seems overwhelming, or even to X-Files. Especially once the military admits that they have questions themselves. The discussions about the future are also intriguing, and even Loeb will have to admit, if we get there. We are a people slowing burning our home to a crisp. However Loeb is hopeful and looks at some of the issues that might come up, social, religious, and other ideas that can be helpful, and a hindrance.

A interesting view of what might be out there, one that leaves a reader with a lot of questions, and a lot of questioning of what they used to believe. Recommended of course for science readers, fans of alien contact, and lots of podcasts for information. Also a very good reference book for science fiction writers, and game designers both for ideas, and for motivations for characters. A very interesting different look at life on other worlds.

[Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Harvard theoretical physicist Avi Loeb’s most recent work is perhaps one of the most timely pieces on the shelf. 2023 was the year for UAP. There were highly credentialed former military officers alleging deep-state corruption and the retrieval and reverse-engineering of extraterrestrial tech. Loeb’s book was written just before the July 2023 UAP whistleblower hearings and released just after. However, its timeliness is undeniable regardless.

Loeb is the premier scientist looking for evidence of extraterrestrial artifacts, believing he’s found just that in retrieving spherules from the interstellar meteor IM1. The spherules are made up of a combination of elements highly unlikely to occur together naturally. This discovery came about just after the book’s release in 2023. The genesis of his Galileo Project that swept the ocean floor for these spherules is detailed in the book.

Perhaps the most intriguing and edifying portions of the book come in the form of Loeb’s profound philosophical musings on the state of human affairs in 2023. Loeb breaks down civilizations on an ascending scale from D to A, espousing that humanity is a “D-Class” civilization, or one that is actively degrading its host planet’s ability to sustain life.

Loeb challenges humanity to view itself from an extraterrestrial perspective, and in doing so to understand that humanity has a less than attractive interstellar persona. Not only are we unable to venture past our own moon (and even in that we do so by means of combustion), we are more concerned with petty terrestrial power squabbling and “industrial
murder” than we are with our interstellar future.

Loeb’s book serves as a call to science rather than a call to arms. Humanity needs to unite under a common ambition, not a common threat. That ambition is its interstellar future. In 500million to 1billion years, the sun will expand and make this planet uninhabitable. We must turn our sights to science and tech and find ways to get off this rock, or we’re doomed. We aren’t going to progress in that direction if we continue to devote resources to industrial murder and destroy the earth before we have a chance to get off of it.

[Joseph · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just finished reading "Interstellar: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life and Our Future in the Stars" by Avi Loeb, published by Mariner.
Avi Loeb is a believer.
Make no mistake about it. And like all good and firm believers of faith and/or an idea, Loeb absolutely needs not evidence at all to support his claims that discovering the existence of advanced extraterrestrial life will finally grant humanity the secrets of immortality because these kind, benevolent, and and let's not forget super advanced aliens will share their life extension technology with us - if only we believe in them.
Loeb is not advancing any bold new ideas here. He's parroting decades old beliefs that once humanity discovers the existence of advanced star faring aliens, than all the problems plaguing the world will be resolved in a bizarre mixture of faith the combines pseudo-science and pseudo-faith.
Oumuamua is Loeb's obsession. He's convinced like all believers of questionable cults - in this case the Cult of Seti-Ism - that humanity is suffering because of it's unwillingness to embrace the truth of Oumuamua - that it was - and he never offers any proof - alien technology and we're blinded to the truth by our unwillingness to believe and keep an open mind.
Loeb should follow his own advice. While he does provide some details as to how the first interstellar meteorites were determined to have struck Earth and his planned expedition to recover the material, Loeb has already decided anything he finds will be evidence of advanced technology. So much for the scientific method of following where the facts lead.
Loeb is definitely blinded by the light of his own beliefs that he truly can not see that he is undermining his own quest for enlightenment.
Not Recommended.
One Star.

[Jonathan Dereszynski · Rating 5 out of 5]

In "Interstellar," Avi Loeb transcends the realm of conventional scientific discourse, offering a riveting and thought-provoking look at humanity's place in the cosmos. The book serves as an urgent call to arms, urging us not only to consider the reality of extraterrestrial life but to proactively prepare for such an encounter.

Where many scientific texts are laden with jargon and esoteric concepts, Loeb strikes a balance between rigor and readability. He demystifies the complexities surrounding the possibility of contact with extraterrestrial civilizations, offering a realistic blueprint that shatters Hollywood-induced stereotypes. The urgency with which Loeb treats the subject is palpable and infectious, pushing us to reconsider our complacency in looking outward.

One of the most compelling aspects of "Interstellar" is its interdisciplinary approach. Loeb skillfully integrates science, technology, philosophy, and ethics, showing how these fields are intertwined in our search for extraterrestrial life and the profound choices that await us. The book serves as a frontline account of the scientific advancements preparing us for this cosmic rendezvous, making the unknown feel both thrilling and within reach.

Loeb doesn't just raise questions; he instigates a much-needed dialogue about what it means to be human in an ever-expanding universe. "Interstellar" challenges us to elevate our gaze from our terrestrial concerns, to recognize our potential—and responsibility—as cosmic citizens.

In essence, "Interstellar" is a masterful blend of cutting-edge science and thought-provoking philosophy. It's a seminal work that invites us to participate in one of the most monumental quests of human history. Five stars.

[Federico Lucifredi · Rating 5 out of 5]

A worthy sequel of Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth, with the same structure: an update on research progress combined with some more abstract thinking about the nature of research.

The most notable research update is the identification of two interstellar meteors, and plans to attempt retrieval of parts of one from the seabed. Many references to other works are interesting as "pointers" to interesting research for readers that do not have the time to track preprints on Arxiv.

The most interesting part of the "meta" considerations about research is the discussion of "junior moments", and how researchers transform during their careers from challenging rebel upstarts to defenders of the status quo — reflecting Max Planck's glib quote "A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die". Loeb makes a case for nurturing and sponsoring "junior moments" wherever they are found.

[Matt Portnoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I need to read more books like this! Despite (or maybe in spite) of all of our current challenges on the planet, Loeb declares why we should be focused on the space around our planet and our solar system to identify artifacts of extraterrestrial civilizations. This is not a wild-eyed screed from a conspiracy theorist or an alleged alien abductee, rather it is a science and fact based plea in order to continue our civilization. Dr. Loeb is a scientist, an astrophysicist by trade, and his arguments, though passionate in their tone, are grounded in the knowledge that we have in our hands today, and predictive of what we may be able to accomplish in the next decade without needing to break the laws of known physics. This book is blended with a wonderful balance of science and art, laced with philosophy, religion, myth, and popular culture making the entire premise easily consumable (and enjoyable) by anyone, even without prior knowledge of the scientific disciplines he explains. There is so much in here it would be difficult to summarize. Even if your experience with space is limited to Alien or Independence Day or Star Wars (George Lucas had it right!) spend some time with this book and find out why we should be reaching for the stars, even while they might be reaching back!

[Ryan Bailey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read and really liked his prior book, "Extraterrestrial," about the fascinating 'Oumuamua object that zipped through and out of our solar system in 2017. He had many interesting arguments, and backed them up with some math I could follow.

This book had fewer ideas, and so explained them in slightly different ways several times to fill the space.

Also, whereas the first book was explaining the justification for keeping an open mind in science instead of unscientifically assuming the least surprising result (which I found quite persuasive), this book went several steps further, making some big, unsupported assumptions that were surprising coming from a prominent scientist.

Instead, this book felt more like clickbait: hoping to say the most alarming thing to get more attention in an economy where attention = money. I'm already on board with exploring space, we don't have to act like we've already proven that there are aliens waiting for us on the other end of our journey.

[Anthony Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a world where there are many who model themselves after Carl Sagan, Avi Loeb is actually out there doing the work, and enthusiastically proclaiming the Scientific Gospel.

Some of his specific assertions might not pan out, but Avi clearly has a galactic view, and wants to proactively usher humanity into the next paradigm of life. This is ultimately my wish, and I appreciate him for his optimism, especially in regards to our relationship to other life.

The short of his hypothesis? Our first interaction with another species will likely be us coming across its junk, and not a life form itself intentionally seeking us out. Which is about seventeen shades more sober than the standard ufologist, and firmly places him within baton distance of Carl Sagan.

Really lucid and informative. Even if it was a bit of a sales pitch for a mission that ultimately didn't result in him getting to press an Alien button.

[Firsh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know many of my ratings are 3 stars in a row, which might suggest a general lack of enthusiasm towards books, but I believe this is just an accidental streak. The audiobook player picks these randomly from my list. I enjoyed Avi Loeb's other book, Extraterrestrial, back when it was still intriguing to speculate about what 'Oumuamua was. There was an air of mystery around it, and he dedicated an entire book to the subject, which was very interesting, and I wanted to believe. However, I think he went too far in this one. Throughout, it felt like I was listening to propaganda for aliens, as if I could change anything about how we are currently searching for them. He also expects this effort to be supported by government-backed companies rather than privately funded ones, for some reason.

I don't know; it just generally felt like too much and didn't come from a composed, scientific approach. It didn't particularly excite me, and I already feel like I've learned enough about this topic. Now, I'm just patiently waiting for that BBC article announcing that some primitive life has been found on a moon in our solar system. I used to be enthusiastic about space, but when I learned how expensive telescopes are, and how disappointing they can be when it's not a camera but your eyes attached to them, I dialed back. Also, I don't have anyone to stargaze with, so those empty dark sites remain empty for now, as far as I'm concerned. Overall, this book didn't add anything to my life, but it wasn't inherently bad either.

[Richard Kriheli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Avi Loeb is a chaos agent, and I love it. A Harvard scientist, astrophysicist and professor who is urging the scientific community to be more open-minded, curious, while shedding ego and perceptions when asking very hard questions and exploring very wild theories. At the center of it all is pushing the boundaries of science and that is what is needed to advance our civilization. Avi seems to be focused on the topic of interstellar and extraterrestrial matters and whether we're alone in the universe. He takes a measured, open-minded approach to all of the UFO/UAP incidents/events dotted throughout our terrestrial history and offers much insight on how to examine this data. After all, it IS data. Data that can be analyzed but far-too often dismissed. I read his "Extraterrestrial" book last year and was impressed by his reasoning and was happy to give this one a go to. Recommended.

[Kyle Mccloskey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I mean, it's sold as "That Harvard Professor who is obsessed with aliens," but as is often the case, the situation is a lot more nuanced than that. He is basically calling for both a reassessment for how funding is allocated in academic research AND for us to be willing to change our framework with which we approach scientific inquiry (and life in general). He's not saying "aliens definitely exist" but rather "how would our research change if we allowed for that possibility?" This, combined with his interrogation of the limits of "expertise" when it is combined with capitalistic expectations and limited possibilities, made it an interesting listen, though not something I would necessarily recommend.