The inspiring City of Mainz in Germany has been the birthplace of the Johannes Gutenberg’s printing press. In my keynote lecture at the CURIOUS 2024 conference in Mainz today, I explained how Gutenberg’s insight could inspire us to make copies of terrestrial life on other worlds. Gutenberg did not print a random book, but chose the Bible so that its precious information content will not be lost by the fate of a small number of handwritten copies. Similarly, we can aim to extend the book of terrestrial life beyond Earth so that it will not be vulnerable to a single planet catastrophe. In fact, our Gutenberg-inspired plans could be far more ambitious. If we discover how to create a baby universe in the laboratory, we could print new copies of our Universe, pregnant with life-as-we-know-it. More advanced technological civilizations that predated us by billions of years might have done so.
The conference slogan was: “United by Science for a Better Future.” At my lunch conversation with the Physics Nobel laureate and former U.S. Secretary of Energy, Steve Chu, I asked him: “Are you optimistic about the future of humanity?” In his reply, Steve focused on the outcome of the next U.S. election. The discussion was broadened by Uli Betz, Vice President of innovation at Merck, who proposed the visionary Science Declaration: “Make science, not war.” Everyone around the table signed this declaration, including: Jelena Begovic — Minister of Science, Technological Development and Innovation at Serbia, Alon Chen — President of the Weizmann Institute, Patrick Cramer — President of the Max Planck Society, Marc Reibert — Chairman of the robotics company Boston Dynamics, Richard Webb — Chief Magazine Editor for Nature, and Otmar Wiestler — President of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers.
In the roundtable conversation that ensued, I highlighted why science is better than politics: it stems from raw-curiosity; it promotes modesty and learning given that existing knowledge is just an island in an ocean of ignorance; it takes risks in exploring the unknown; it uses evidence from experimental data collected by instruments as the arbitrator between conflicting opinions; it is an infinite-sum game because everyone benefits from new scientific knowledge; and it is based on cooperation with no reference to societal circumstances such as ethnicity, gender socio-economic status or nationality. These are the true colors of science as it should be practiced. But the prevailing reality in academia is often tainted by experts who worry mostly about their status, or by intellectual gymnastics as if science is a competitive sport rather than a humbling learning experience about nature.
Promoting science for the benefit of humanity is a noble goal. But how can we convince the public or governments to allocate more attention and resources to science? One way is by communicating science broadly and inspiring the public. For example, my diary reports from the Pacific Ocean expedition in June 2023 inspired millions of readers. But I also noticed that this public attention received aggressive push back from jealous colleagues or from science journalists who generated controversy for the benefit of clickbait.
This roundtable discussion was followed by three podcast interviews from German science journalists who asked me about the status of the Galileo Project search for extraterrestrial technological artifacts. There is no doubt in my mind that the public is inspired by science as a learning experience. But it takes two to tango, and when academia distances itself from the public’s interests, it loses traction in becoming a societal priority. Scientific research should address topics that the public cares about. Is searching for extraterrestrial technological artifacts riskier than studying extra dimensions within the mainstream of theoretical particle physics? After all, terrestrial technologies produced interstellar space trash in the form of Voyager 1 & 2, Pioneer 10 & 11 and New Horizons, whereas nobody uncovered any experimental evidence for extra dimensions. As of now, the search for extraterrestrial microbes motivates future astronomical observatories, whereas the search for extraterrestrial technological signatures remains on the sidelines. Why do mainstream astronomers shy away from the public interest in extraterrestrial intelligence?
Historically, Mainz is also the place where the married couple Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci from the Johannes Gutenberg University, studied mRNA technology for decades. After pitching a commercial plan to billionaire investors in 2007, they received €150 million in seed money. They co-founded the vaccine company BioNTech which in 2020 developed the first mRNA drug approved for human use in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and constituted the fastest vaccine developed against a new pathogen in the history of medicine.
This accomplishment highlights the second gift from the City of Mainz to the promotion of a better future for humanity. The international fabric of scientific collaboration can guide us through global challenges beyond pandemics, including climate change, scarcity of essential materials, power supply to an exponentially-growing computer infrastructure, protection against asteroids or powerful solar storms, and artificial-intelligence safety.
In my final interview for the day, I was asked about my personal wish for the future and replied: “It is to live as long as possible and understand the world better. The more data we collect, the better we are. Anomalies should trigger curiosity, not push back from experts. True, there is sometimes not enough evidence to support extraordinary claims. But without curiosity about these anomalies, we would never invest the necessary funds and effort needed to uncover extraordinary clues. If we only focus on known unknowns, we will never discover the unknown unknowns. We cannot find them without taking risks.”
Following our discussion, Uli Betz handed me a copy of his fascinating new book, titled “Science and Religion United”. Exploring the unknown with the humility and open-mindedness of a student is a common thread that runs through both endeavors. Scientists or clergy who are dogmatic, betray the promise of gaining new knowledge. To those of us who pay attention to anomalies, it is clear that if our boat heads in the wrong direction — we must rock that boat. In addition, politicians must recognize that we are all in the same boat, and it is better to navigate it through international scientific collaborations rather than through conflicts and political bans on cooperation.
Finally, we should all keep in mind that the Messiah who is envisioned to guide us towards peace and prosperity might not be a passenger in our boat but rather a visitor from another star.
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. His new book, titled “Interstellar”, was published in August 2023.
