Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth

by Avi Loeb

To be sure, it would be transformative to learn what preceded the Big Bang, where the matter sucked into a black hole goes, or what theoretical insights finally square relativity with quantum physics. Indeed, I have devoted a significant portion of my life and career to answering the first two of these questions. But would the answers to these questions change our sense of ourselves as significantly as learning that we are just one intelligent species among many—or, conversely, that we are the only conscious intelligence to arise in the universe? I doubt it. Because I believe this question is so consequential, I find it remarkable how rarely, and how cavalierly, scientists have gone about seeking an answer. That didn’t start with the resistance to my lightsail theory; far from it. Scientists’ reluctance to read the messages of ‘Oumuamua long predates its passing through our solar system.