THE BIG RETORT

  The history of science is littered with innovators scorned by the establishment, yet few comparisons are as potent today as that between Avi Loeb and Galileo Galilei. Both—separated by four centuries—stand accused of practising "bad science" because they prioritise the interpretation of new anomalous observations over allegiance to the reigning theoretical dogma... The Big Retort The Case of Loeb: Dogma versus the Null Hypothesis Today, the established astronomical dogma means everything must be explained by known physics and chemistry before anyone dare mention an advanced intelligence greater than ours. This is enforced by the principle of Occam's Razor (the simplest explanation is usually the correct one). Avi Loeb's "crime" is the suggestion that 'Oumuamua and 3I/ATLAS could be extraterrestrial technological artefacts (ETAs) . Avi doesn't assert proof, but argues that these anomalies are so difficult to explain naturally that the ETA hy...