Tuesday, May 18, 2021
Another home run by Avi Loeb
Loeb analyzes orthodoxy.
He starts with the response of other astronomers to his assertion that a big space rock might be an alien spacecraft.
Innovation blossoms in a culture willing to acquire new knowledge rather than being trapped in its past belief system. A mainstream astronomer who worked on rocks in the solar system for decades commented grudgingly: “‘Oumuamua is so strange…. I wish it never existed.” Such a sentiment is not the trademark of an intellectual culture that fosters discovery. In the weeks following the publication of my book I received numerous e-mails from astronomers, some tenured, who confessed that they agree with me but are afraid to speak out because of the potential repercussions to their careers.Loeb sticks to astronomical questions, thus avoiding THE BIGGEST CRIME IN HISTORY, which is probably wise. Writers who want to keep their heads attached to their necks need to talk sideways. In a total tyranny, oblique references are harder to chop. See nursery rhymes. I notice only one missed point:
Finding extraordinary evidence requires a commitment of extraordinary funds. This was true in the successful searches for the Higgs boson or gravitational waves, and it is definitely true in the so-far unsuccessful search for the nature of dark matter. Lack of evidence can be a self-fulfilling prophecy, the result of not investing enough in the search.Might be true in quantum crap, but it's NOT true in biology. Big money and big equipment haven't made any big discoveries. In fact big money and big equipment LIMIT your vision, because (as Loeb noted) the grantors and administrators are unwilling to devote part of the big equipment to an unpopular search. Big discoveries happen when you take off your equipment, take off your theory goggles, and LOOK ABOUT YOU. TAKE HOLD OF THE THINGS THAT ARE HERE. TALK TO THEM. LET THEM TALK TO YOU.
Labels: Carver
¶ 8:26 AM
