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Harvard's Avi Loeb Confirms New Government UAP Science Council | Good Trouble Show
"We should keep our eyes on the orbs, not on the audience."
Harvard astrophysicist Dr. Avi Loeb, @ProfessorAviLoeb founder of Harvard's Galileo Project, returns to The Good Trouble Show with Matt Ford - his fifth or sixth appearance - for a wide-ranging conversation about the scientific search for evidence of technology that isn't ours.
Loeb has been asked to assemble and lead a new UAP Science Advisory Council tasked with studying anomalous data using the scientific method. He explains what the panel can and can't do, why he insists on working only with open, unclassified data, and why he deliberately gave outspoken skeptic Michael Shermer a seat at the table. He also responds to critics like Neil deGrasse Tyson, weighs in on David Grusch's congressional testimony, and reacts to Steven Spielberg's new film. From there the conversation opens into the biggest questions in modern astronomy: interstellar objects like 3I/ATLAS and 'Oumuamua, dark matter, von Neumann self-replicating probes, synthetic biology, the Fermi paradox, and whether humanity should pour its resources into the stars instead of into conflict here on Earth.
Along the way: how to tell a working scientist from a "science influencer," why reality is under no contract to give you pleasure, the difference between a signal and a source of noise (and Beatriz Villarroel's anomalous transients), and what Loeb would feel if we ever learned we are not alone. Plus a full audience Q&A in the second half.
THE UAP SCIENCE ADVISORY COUNCIL
Dr. Avi Loeb chairs the council. Members discussed in this conversation:
- Prof. Garry Nolan (Stanford University)
- Prof. Matthew Szydagis (physicist, University at Albany)
- Dr. Kevin Knuth (physicist, University at Albany; former NASA)
- Rear Adm. Tim Gallaudet, USN ret. (former acting NOAA Administrator)
- Dr. Peter Skafish (anthropologist, the Sol Foundation)
- Dr. Michael Shermer (founder of Skeptic magazine)
The full council also includes Carol Cleland, Richard Cloete, Omer Eldadi, Robin Hanson, Ross Howard, Ben Lamm, Devesh Nandal, and Jennice Vilhauer.
ABOUT THE GUEST
Dr. Avi Loeb is the Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard University, former chair of Harvard's Astronomy department, founding director of Harvard's Black Hole Initiative, and head of the Galileo Project, which searches for evidence of extraterrestrial technology. He is the bestselling author of Extraterrestrial and Interstellar, and publishes regular essays at avi-loeb.medium.com.
BOOKS BY AVI LOEB
Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth
Interstellar: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life and Our Future Beyond Earth
CHAPTERS
00:00 Dr. Avi Loeb on The Good Trouble Show: They had me at hello
00:24 A Harvard scientist asked to study the unknown, UFOs / UAP
01:37 Three things happened in one week
02:33 A new report and a two-day 2023 encounter
03:38 Human technology, or the biggest discovery in history?
06:15 What the UAP Science Advisory Council can actually do
08:24 Galileo, the Vatican & the "Kardashians of science" (on Neil deGrasse Tyson)
11:35 Two bodies, two jobs: who reviews what
13:47 Why reality beats any Hollywood script
16:30 No special access, no budget: what can it deliver?
18:28 "I just want to know the answer"
19:50 Fermi's paradox and von Neumann probes
21:30 Are humans self-replicating probes? Biology vs. silicon
24:28 Invest in the stars, not in war
26:55 The panel - Garry Nolan, Kevin Knuth, Tim Gallaudet - and why skeptic Michael Shermer got a seat
31:14 The bet with Michael Shermer: evidence by 2030
33:13 Why science lives with uncertainty: dark matter
37:12 Belief vs. evidence: courtrooms, DNA, and Galileo
42:37 Inside the Galileo Project: observatories and an ocean expedition 3i/Atlas
45:54 What a SCIF really is, and AI's threat to your brain
47:26 Signal vs. noise: Beatriz Villarroel's transients and cosmic rays
52:32 Spy planes, satellite glints, and old photographic plates
1:01:35 Apollo, Artemis II, and the Rubin Observatory
1:04:32 Audience Q&A begins
1:09:55 Why you don't need warp drive to cross the galaxy
1:15:23 "What you see is what you get": trust and a Brandon Routh cameo
1:18:26 "Did you read the paper?" - the Villarroel question
1:25:08 If the best evidence is hidden, how do we ever know?
1:28:10 "Would you be surprised if they're already here?"
1:32:42 Where to follow Loeb's work, and goodbye
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