Avi Loeb

you know, specializing in zebras.

And they go to the zoo and they see an elephant.

So then they say, oh, the elephant is a zebra without stripes.

And I say, no, it's a completely different animal.

You know, a spacecraft would appear differently than a rock, than a comet, because it will not have a cometary tail.

It could be propelled by something else.

So let me go back to the big picture that I mentioned before.

So we live on this earth, moving around the sun.

And my colleagues in academia, you know, one thing I often say is common sense is not common in academia.

Because my colleagues in academia know very well about the story of Galileo.

They know very well about the possibility of black swans.

And they say, it's an extraordinary claim to imagine something like us, as smart as we are, near another star.

And I say, no, it's an ordinary claim.

Why would you think it's extraordinary?

And by the way, if you decide not to collect evidence, not to look for it, then you will not find it.

So I say, extraordinary evidence requires extraordinary funding.

You really need to put resources to find the evidence.

By not attending to this possibility, by not imagining this... And by the way, I much prefer to listen to imaginative science fiction writers, you know, first class, because they're much more interesting than second class scientists who don't have an imagination and they don't...

They not only have a problem with discussing alien intelligence, they also have a problem with whoever discusses it, and they would try to suppress that voice.

And I think it makes no sense whatsoever, because the public really cares about it.