We can’t get to know alien visitors if we’re not looking for them
Thus far, mankind has sent five objects out of our solar system. Millions of years from now, one of those objects may drift into another star system, informing an exoplanet’s inhabitants of our existence. If the roles were reversed, however, and some interstellar civilization’s space junk drifted into our solar system, would we even notice it? Loeb’s argument is not if we don’t try. For this reason, Loeb has established the Galileo Project to actively search for interstellar visitors. He has designed a small observatory to monitor the skies with instruments and AI designed to filter out natural phenomena and alert us of UAPs (what used to be called UFOs). Loeb wants to place these observatories in multiple locations around the globe. There have been four confirmed objects from outside our solar system that have entered our neighborhood. Three were meteors that landed on Earth. Loeb’s team is working to recover and analyze fragments of those meteorites. The fourth was ‘Oumuamua, a mysterious object that passed within 33 million km of Earth. It’s not examined in detail here because Loeb discussed it in his previous book Extraterrestrial. Could ‘Oumuamua have been an alien probe? We’ll never know, because we didn’t get a good look at it. Loeb argues that we should be better prepared for the next interstellar object that comes our way.
I really like most of what Loeb has to say in this book, but I didn’t always like the way he says it. The text is accessible to general readers with a reasonable level of science education. There are a few instances where Loeb’s explanations of theoretical physics were over my head, but I got the general gist. On the other hand, Loeb must think his audience is dense, judging by how he continually hammers the same points home over and over again. His writing is sooooo repetitive. The whole second half of the book consists of multiple reiterations of the same points made in Part I, just restated in a more philosophical tone with different metaphors.
As to “Our Future in the Stars,” I agree with Loeb that ultimately mankind will have to migrate to other star systems or face extinction here on earth. If we don’t destroy ourselves sooner, the Sun will eventually die. His vision of our extrasolar exodus, however, isn’t entirely appealing. Loeb proposes sending thousands of small craft with 3D printers that can molecularly constitute human DNA to seed alien worlds. That’s not exactly what I had in mind when envisioning my descendants colonizing other planets. Loeb himself admits that such a plan “may promise human civilization endures but not as anything recognizably human.” Loeb is also very excited about a recent article in which some researchers assert it is possible to create a “pocket universe” in a laboratory. Why is this even a goal?
I admire Loeb for daring to think about the big picture of mankind’s future and the rational way he has gone about working through these issues. Though I’m not wholeheartedly sold on everything he says, I’m glad someone is doing this work, and I look forward to hearing more about his findings.
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