Advice for Kids, Including Those in Families Overseas
Today, I had received the following unusual request:
“Dear Dr. Loeb,
My name is Ashleigh Dunn and I work at Misawa Air Base in Aomori Prefecture, Japan. We are hosting a community event titled “Together Under the Same Sky” in celebration of International Observe the Moon Day. The purpose of this event is to bring together U.S. Forces and JASDF families by highlighting the one thing every person on Earth shares — the sky above us.
We would be honored if you would consider providing a short pre‑recorded video message for this event. Your work in astrophysics and your leadership in exploring bold ideas about extraterrestrial life have sparked global conversation and curiosity (I’ve personally listened to many of the podcasts you’ve been on). A message from you would be incredibly meaningful to our community.
Many of our military‑affiliated children live far from their home country and often miss out on traditional aspects of childhood. Some have a parent currently deployed. Hearing from a scientist who encourages open‑minded exploration and critical thinking would inspire them deeply and remind them that their questions and dreams matter.
If you are willing, we kindly request a brief message sharing:
- What inspired your journey into astrophysics and your research on interstellar phenomena
- A simple explanation of your current work and why exploring the unknown is important
- A few words of encouragement for children growing up in military families overseas
Thank you very much for considering this request and for the thought‑provoking work you continue to share with the world.
Respectfully,
Ashleigh Dunn, M.Ed
Outdoor Adventure Program Director
Misawa AB, Japan”
Below is the message I conveyed in my video.
***
All the adults in the world started as kids. They used to be curious and full of wonder just like you.
Intelligence without data is worthless. As much as we invest in artificial intelligence (AI), we must in parallel invest in the collection of scientific data that would make AI useful for advancing our scientific knowledge.
Life is a learning experience. The more we learn, the better we can adapt to reality. The best way to learn is by paying attention to strange facts that do not line up with our expectations. This experience makes kids curious.
Kids figure out the world by checking it out. They learn from experimentation. If there is a strange object far away, the kids will approach the object and play with it. This is also how science works. On the other hand, lazy adults will save the effort and express an opinion on what the object is. They might be right most of the time, but they will also miss rare opportunities for discovering the unexpected. The reason is simple: they always expect what we already know. But there are many more things that we do not know.
The problem starts when kids grow and choose to become the adults in the room. As a result, they avoid taking the risk of being wrong in order to protect their reputation. They refuse to admit what they do not know, because that would weaken the image they wish to present.
Experts get emotionally attached to traditional views because they are not willing to admit that they missed something important. Rather than revise their opinion in the face of new evidence, they hide the evidence or raise enough dust to claim that they do not see anything. When threatened by contradicting facts, experts do not play it fair; they block contradicting reports from publication and they attempt to discredit the authors of such reports. They have plenty of time to act as gatekeepers, dedicated to preserving echo chambers that boost their ego.
In fact, the knowledge of all the adults in the world is an island in an ocean of ignorance. We do not even know what 95% of the Universe is made of, after investing billions of dollars over decades in search for invisible forms of matter or energy. Scientific discoveries do not take place unless scientists decide to invest time and money in the search for related evidence. Without searching out of curiosity, we will never find anything. Given our limited resources, we need to decide what is worth searching for. By doing so, we also decide what we will never discover.
The situation is similar to a journey aiming to reach a particular destination without knowing which road leads to it. If our entire team takes the wrong road, we might never reach the destination. If we do not know which road to take, we can send different team members along different roads with the hope that one of them will reach the destination. Unfortunately, the scientific community often acts collectively by selecting a consensus road and avoiding alternatives. The poet Robert Frost, who lived not far from my home, wrote:
“…Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
As we collect clues, we act like a detective. The evidence allows us to figure things out. Let me explain that through a metaphor from soccer matches. I love playing soccer but sometimes it is unclear whether a goal was scored so a referee has to step in and decide.
A good soccer referee ignores the audience and makes a decision based on evidence. When their eyes cannot decide how to rule, a referee would consult the data from video cameras. However, a good referee will never go around and ask the audience members for their opinions. This is exactly how good science works. Scientists must keep their eyes on the ball, not the audience or social media influencers.
As we learn more facts by collecting evidence from our scientific instruments, we expand the landmass of the island of our scientific knowledge. This increases the shoreline, allowing us a better appreciation of what we do not know, represented by the vastness of the ocean of ignorance surrounding the shores of knowledge. The more we know, the more questions we have about what we do not know.
Science is a great privilege. It allows us to stay curious just like kids without being afraid of asking questions and learning something new. As you already realized by now, you — kids — are my role model!
***
The truth does not care whether we admit it or not. The adults in the room may insist that there are no intelligent neighbors in our cosmic street, but their opinion will not rid us of these neighbors. It will only maintain our ignorance. We have a chance of finding our neighbors if we are only courageous enough to search for them. People stay lonely if they do not invest time and effort in seeking a partner.
Looking for another technological civilization represents a challenging search for an interstellar partner. I met my wife on a blind date. My strategy was to aim high rather than aim low, and look for someone who is more intelligent than I am. Most of the dating partners available are mediocre and easy to find. Despite this lesson from the dating scene, my fellow astronomers are entirely focused on searching for the most abundant and mediocre forms of extraterrestrial life: microbes. I keep telling them: “Aim high and search for technological civilizations that are more accomplished than us. These could serve as our role models.” But my colleagues ignore my message. As of now, the U.S. astronomy community plans to invest over ten billion dollars in the search for microbes over the next two decades, without allocating any federal funding towards the search for extraterrestrial technological signatures — from which we can learn about alien science.
The situation is similar to cave dwellers willing to search only for common rocks to make tools out of them. When faced with a cell phone — the cave dwellers would conclude that it is a fragile rock and throw it away. However, their kids might be more curious and play with the cell phone until they learn how to use it as a much better tool than common rocks.
This is the approach that scientists should adopt regarding the unidentified objects in the UFO files released by the Pentagon recently. I felt like a kid in a candy store when seeing the Pentagon files. Collecting new scientific data about these unidentified objects is the goal of the Galileo Project under my leadership. Galileo Galilei was the first astronomer who looked through a telescope to find the truth. He discovered the Moons of Jupiter and realized something important: that not all celestial objects revolve around the Earth and therefore we are not at the center of the Universe.
***
In conclusion, my advice to you as kids is simple: stay curious for your entire life and never become the adult in the room who pretends to know more than we actually know. Always ask difficult questions and look for the answers based on evidence, not based on what other people or AI agents tell you.
The cherry on top of this cake is that if you choose to become a scientist — you will get paid for staying curious. Can you believe how lucky I am to work as a scientist?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Avi Loeb is the head of the Galileo Project, founding director of Harvard University’s — Black Hole Initiative, director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and the former chair of the astronomy department at Harvard University (2011–2020). He is a former member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and a former chair of the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Academies. He is the bestselling author of “Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth” and a co-author of the textbook “Life in the Cosmos”, both published in 2021. The paperback edition of his new book, titled “Interstellar”, was published in August 2024.
Professional website:
https://lweb.cfa.harvard.edu/~loeb/
Social media:
https://avi-loeb.medium.com/
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfessorAviLoeb
https://open.spotify.com/show/1zhndXkvSY2b8FdjspFpCd
https://x.com/ProfAviLoeb
