In his 2021 book Extraterrestrial theoretical physicist Avi Loeb, the longest serving chair of Harvard’s astronomy department, presented a theory that shook the scientific community: our solar system, he claimed, had likely been visited by a piece of advanced alien technology from a distant star. His controversial argument opened minds to the possibilities of our universe and the existence of intelligent life beyond Earth. But a crucial question remained: What do we do next?
Loeb tackles it by reimagining the idea of contact with extraterrestrial civilizations. Dismantling a science-fiction fueled vision of a human and alien life encounter, he suggests a blueprint for how such an interaction might occur, resetting the expectation of what it means to identify an extraterrestrial object.
From searches for extraterrestrial technology to the heated debate of the existence of unidentified aerial phenomena, Loeb provides a view of the current progress in science and technology he sees as preparing us for contact. He also lays out the implications of becoming—or not becoming—interstellar. He contends that we must seek out other life forms, and in the process, choose who and what we are within the universe.
His book Interstellar: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life and Our Future in the Stars (Mariner Books) is available for purchase.
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