The beautiful snow-covered mountains straddled between blue skies with white clouds and vast green fields, looked like heaven when I arrived at Schloss Elmau in Germany. There was the bench on which Barack Obama met with Angela Merkel in the G7 summit held there in 2015. Shortly after my arrival, I gave a talk about the search for extraterrestrial intelligence and attended a panel on artificial intelligence (AI) in front of a distinguished audience with three former prime ministers and some of the most influential CEOs and journalists in the world.
The schedule of this Stern Stewart symposium, to which I was invited as a member of WORLD.MINDS, was split evenly between the realms of politics and science & technology. While listening to the fascinating discussions in both realms, I experienced mood swings between the pessimism that saturates fierce political debates and the optimism inspired by the collaborative spirit of science & technology. During my panel discussion, I had mentioned the fundamental difference between politics and science as the contrast between zero-sum games on limited resources — such as territories on the surface of Earth, and infinite-sum games on unlimited resources — such as new frontiers of knowledge in interstellar space.
Some worry about jobs being taken by AI. But the truth is that AI will relieve humans from familiar boring tasks and free their mind to explore the infinite frontiers of the unknown. In these frontiers of exploration, science meets spirituality. All of those who maintain a beginner’s mind and enjoy growth, would enjoy this exciting future.
However, there are also those who feel uneasy about the unknown and prefer to stay within the finite space of past knowledge. The related gatekeepers in the scientific community or traditional clergy, maintain their social status through virtue signaling based on past narratives. In contrast, any learner knows the humbling admission of being wrong.
In the discussions about politics, I noticed an underlying thread. The lack of respect or sympathy to weak individuals or nations, triggers violence and conflicts. Germany lost its national pride after World War I and engaged in World War II to restore its dignity. My father’s family lost 65 members in the holocaust, and the only family branch survived thanks to the foresight of my grandfather, Albert Loeb, to leave Germany in 1936. In another case, Russia lost some of its pride after the Soviet Union disintegrated and is now engaged in war with Ukraine. A simple way to avoid these boomerang effects is to always pay respect, sympathize and support those on the losing side of historical circumstances.
There is a dark undercurrent in human history which is driven by the frustration of those who feel humiliated. Commentators who are outraged by the presidential candidate Donald Trump, should understand that he would not have had his political support without a large contingency of society feeling alienated and ignored. One must engage with the root of any political phenomenon if one wishes to change it. While circumstances change, the phenomenon will repeat as long as its underlying cause stays in place.
On the perception of political events, I had stimulating discussions with brilliant journalists, such as the New-York Times columnist Tom Friedman and CNN commentator Paul Begala. When Arwa Damon discussed truth in journalistic reports, I noted: “To our dismay, wars are often initiated by alpha-males. How do you view from a woman’s perspective the fact that the rape of Jewish women on October 7, 2023 or the recent silencing of Afghan women is not covered enough in the media to galvanize protests by women organizations worldwide?”
A ray of hope for the future of humanity is shining on Schloss Elmau, Germany. (Image credit: Avi Loeb, September 21, 2024)
In my own presentation, I highlighted my hope that the messianic message of peace and prosperity will arrive to Earth from another star, since our politicians and spiritual leaders fail to promote it. By finding advanced technologies from an alien civilization, we could be inspired to advance our own technological future. In summer 2025, I hope to lead an expedition to the crash site of the interstellar meteor IM1 in the Pacific Ocean in order to figure out the nature of this object based on the pieces that will be collected by a robot with a video feed. As of now, AI stands for terrestrial `artificial intelligence’ made by humans, but in the future these initials might also represent `alien intelligence’.
During the panel discussion on the risks to education from AI, I gave an example of a Harvard student who recently wrote a paper with me. While reviewing the draft of the paper, I noticed a reference that does not exist and incorrect statements about the literature. It was obvious to me that these hallucinations were the result of the student using AI tools to write the paper. A member of the audience then asked: “What happened to that student?” and I replied: “I am very gentle with young people because they make innocent mistakes in the process of learning about the world. When I first arrived at my current home and went to the front yard, I saw a tree with a broken branch. Rather than tear the branch apart, I used an insulation tape to strengthen it. Today, twenty years later, it is the tallest branch of the tree. The insulation tape is still visible like lipstick from an old kiss. Young people are fragile and partly broken and we have to mentor them in their early stages. My hope is to stay young just like them as I make my own mistakes while learning about the world.”
Following these comments, a few members of the audience came to me and said how much they appreciate this sentiment. Two people had tears in their eyes and another said: “If I was younger, I would have loved to be your student.”
Tomorrow, I am scheduled to speak at the world’s largest festival of philosophy and music in London U.K., called “How the Light Gets In.” After spending two days on a mix of politics and science, I know perfectly well the answer to that question.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
(Image credit: Chris Michel, 2023)
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.
