loeb outlines his $mn project on NPR/ATC

[MrPosti...@kymhorsell.com]

OK. Now I'm slightly more interested. :)

When I first heard about the Galileo project and looking for tech
signatures on other planets and maybe the moon and maybe stuff in
orbit I tought about got to bed and having a good long sleep.

But now Loeb has explained what he's up to then suddenly I'm
interested and will be looking out for what data they put online for
me to run through my macgic boxes.

-- snip ---

<https://www.wgbh.org/news/science-and-technology/2021/08/02/ufo-hunting-with-harvard-data-astrophysicist-advocates-for-scientific-investigation>

Avi Loeb on All Things Considered
July 30, 2021

UFO Hunting, With Harvard Data: Astrophysicist Advocates For Scientific
Investigation

...

Arun Rath: So, tell us, what inspired you to launch the Galileo Project?

Avi Loeb: Two things. In 2017, there was an object â the first one
that was identified from outside the solar system that arrived close
to Earth â and it didn't look like anything we've seen before. It
didn't look like a comet, it didn't behave like an asteroid.

Rath: The subject of our last conversation.

Loeb: Yes. And I thought maybe it's artificial in origin. And, in
fact, I wrote a book about it, Extraterrestrial, that was published
six months ago. And then a month ago, there was a report delivered to
Congress saying: there are things in the sky above the US whose
nature is not identified. And you would think that's a serious matter,
because the intelligence agencies are admitting that they are not
doing their job. Their job is to protect us from adversaries, to
identify anything that flies in our sky. And here they come to
Congress and say, 'There are some objects that we believe are real,
but we don't understand their nature. They do not behave in ways
consistent with the technologies that humans develop.'

And so here I come and say, 'Great, well, that's a fascinating
subject, very intriguing. Let's try and figure it out as scientists.'
And in fact, the NASA administrator, Bill Nelson, said the same thing
around that time. So I approached people under him, and I said, 'Here
I am to serve and make your boss happy.' Nobody got back to me. And
then a week later, I was approached by a few wealthy individuals that
I've never met before who said, 'Here is, in total, 1.75 mn
dollars, no strings attached. Go ahead and do what you think is
right.' And I said, OK, well, that's a great opportunity to assemble a
team of exceptional scientists that will try to collect new data.

So in a way, I'm behaving like a kid, because when you come to a kid
and say: 'This is the truth,' the kid says, 'I don't believe you, I
will go out and check it out.' And that's pretty much the nature of
scientific inquiry. We maintain our childhood curiosity. We will build
our own telescopes, monitor the sky â the sky's not classified â and
we will try to uncover the nature of these weird objects.

Rath: I would think, given the way you describe that, with the release
of this report that we're talking about, I would think scientists
universally would be very excited â because isn't there a love for
mystery in terms of being able to explain extraordinary data? What was
the reaction of it in general of the scientific community, or was
there much of a reaction to it, beyond you?

Loeb: Well, it was exactly the opposite of what you or I would
expect. And the only reason the 2 of us are speaking is because for
some reason, other people are not using common sense. I don't
understand it, frankly. You know, I'm pretty much curious about the
world â I don't care how many likes I have on Twitter â and I keep my
eyes on the ball, not on the audience. But there are lots of people
that care how many likes they have on Twitter that try to look smart,
to pretend that they know more than they actually know and shy away
from topics that might be viewed as controversial.

There is a stigma on this subject, but I think it's not warranted
because the public cares a lot about this and the public funds
science. And by engaging in this with scientific instruments, you
know, we can attract more funds to support science, we can attract a
lot of young people that will get engaged in science. And this is not
just a theory. I proved it over the past week. I got funding that they
didn't ask for, and I got 1000s of emails since the program was
announced of people interested in getting engaged and helping â
scientifically â the project. So, I rest my case.

Rath: So, this information's been released by the the govt
now. Is there enough data in there to get to get you started? Where do
you go from here?

Loeb: Yeah, so I don't want to look at classified data because that
would limit my freedom. I want to get new data that will be open to
the public and will be analyzed in a transparent way. And that's what
we plan to do. We plan to purchase off-the-shelf telescopes, small
telescopes â a network of tens to 100s of telescopes, depending on
how much money we have currently. We have 1.75 mn dollars. If we
get 10 times more, then we can pretty much get a very exhaustive study
of the sky accomplished. And basically we will deploy these telescopes
in many locations around Earth. They will be connected to cameras that
will feed the data to computers, that will analyze it and identify
objects of interest. And then the telescopes will track these
objects. And of course, key to all of that is to have computer systems
that filter out the data and, in real time, identify objects of interest.

Rath: And you talked about how there seems to be a stigma attached to
even talking about this among scientists. Is there any sense that that
is changing? I mean, you have received a lot of interest in your book
and, now, this project.

Loeb: You know, in the 1000 plus interviews that I've had over the
past 6 months, I had an opportunity to speak with many young
people. And the conclusion is simple. Let's just do it. Let's forget
what the audience is saying. Let's just keep our eyes on the ball and
do it. And eventually people would join. The way we make progress in
science is by being curious, willing to take risks and regarding it as
a learning experience. You know, it's completely allowed for us to be
wrong. So if we examine new data on the sky and find a mundane
explanation to all these UAP â unidentified aerial phenomena â so be
it. We learn something new. There must be some exotic phenomena taking
place in our atmosphere. The only way we don't learn something new is
if we say: business as usual, let's ignore it and we ridicule anyone
that tries to suggest that we should get more evidence.

Rath: The report that the govt released on these unidentified
aerial phenomena, they didn't entertain the idea that this could be
because of extraterrestrial intelligence, but they also didn't give an
explanation for what on Earth was going on. It certainly makes a
certain kind of common sense that like that unexplainable technology,
things flying in the air, you could imagine that being an
extraterrestrial civilization, but are there are there other
explanations that make sense, or do your scientific colleagues or
anyone else offer something that that's plausible â other than alien activity?

Loeb: Well, unfortunately, the data that was released to the public is
not of high-enough quality. You know, it was obtained in a jittery
camera that was in the cockpit of a fighter jet. And that's not the
kind of data you can use for a scientific investigation because you
don't have full control over your experimental setup. And in science,
you cannot rely on eyewitness testimonies. Of course, in the
courtroom, if there is corroborating evidence through eyewitness
testimonies, that's enough to put the person in jail. But you cannot
write a scientific paper based on what people tell you. That's not
good enough.

What you need is instruments that the record quantitative data that
you analyze, and that's what we plan to get. Rather than rely on past
testimonies or past reports that do not stand up to the scrutiny of
modern science, let's just get the data and figure it out. Again, like
kids, I was asked by the Harvard Gazette â the Pravda of Harvard
University â what is the one thing that I would like to change about
my colleagues? And I answered, I would like them to behave more like kids.

Rath: Prof Loeb, it's, again, great speaking with you, and let's
check in once you get some data to to talk about.

Loeb: Yeah, you would be the first to know if you find the evidence
for A.I. systems from another civilization.

--
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