Oumuamua Opportunity

Lessons on science, politics and ourselves

We don’t have a picture of Oumuamua

“I think the reason is because [dark matter is] less relevant to our lives. When something is close to home and affects you emotionally, that causes some distress. People prefer not to have that. They prefer to live in peace and be happy.

The point about reality is that it doesn’t care about how uneasy you are with the notion. Reality is whatever it is. By ignoring it, you maintain your ignorance.

When the philosophers didn’t look through Galileo’s telescope, they were happy, because they thought the sun surrounded the Earth and they maintained their philosophical and religious beliefs that we are at the center of the universe. But that was temporary. It only maintained their ignorance for a little while. Eventually, we realized that the Earth moves around the sun. The fact that they put Galileo in house arrest didn’t change anything. The number of likes on Twitter or whatever we give each other, awards, or put someone in house arrest or anything, that only affects our relation with each other. Reality is whatever it is. By ignoring it, we don’t gain anything, we just lose because we are more ignorant.

So my point is, the way to make progress is not to stick to your notions and maintain a prejudice. Of course, that’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you say, I don’t need to search, I know the answer, I don’t need to look through Galileo’s telescope, of course, it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. You will never find that you’re wrong because you bully people that will do this kind of search, and you don’t fund the research in that direction. It’s like stepping on the grass and saying, look, it doesn’t grow. Science is not about that, science is about finding the truth.”

Avi Loeb, Salon, January 15, 2021

Loeb holds up a mirror for his profession

“[T]he scientific culture should change and be more open-minded to change. I’m sorry to say, but the commercial sector — companies have had much more open-mindedness, much more blue-sky research than the academic world these days.

There are companies like Google or SpaceX or Blue Origins — originally it was IBM — that had a lot of innovations in them. That is surprising to me. It should be the academic world that carries the torch of innovation because it has, in principle, the tenure system that allows people to explore without any risk for their jobs. Unfortunately, many practitioners in academia worry more about their image and their honors, and so forth, and engage much less in risk-taking and in thinking independently and looking for evidence than intellectual gymnastics that demonstrate how smart they are.”

Avi Loeb, Salon, January 15, 2021

What does this have to do with politics?

“I can feel your anger. It gives you focus, makes you stronger.”

Darth Sidious, Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith, 2005

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Curious listener, traveler, lover and creator.

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