Humans are unlikely to sit at the top of the cosmic food chain and would probably be outclassed by any visiting aliens, according to Harvard professor Avi Loeb, who has urged US president Donald Trump to release all available UFO evidence as soon as possible.
Loeb, a theoretical physicist and former chair of Harvard's astronomy department, has become one of the most outspoken academic voices arguing that unidentified aerial phenomena should be taken seriously by mainstream science. He has long pushed US authorities to declassify data on UFOs, and has framed the possibility ofextra terrestrial technologynot as a threat, but as a once‑in‑civilisation chance to learn from a more advanced species.
Loeb's starting point is pragmatic rather than mystical. The Milky Way, he notes, contains around 100 billion stars. In that kind of numerical crush, he argues, it would be arrogant to assume that humanity represents the pinnacle of intelligence and power.
'We are probably not at the top of the food chain, cosmologically speaking,' he said. For him, the sheer number of possible planetary systems means that if aliens are visiting Earth at all, they are almost certainly ahead of us in technological terms.
His language is pointed. Extra terrestrials, if they exist and have reached us, are 'more accomplished' than humans, Loeb says. But he insists this is not a reason for panic. Instead, he casts humanity as the younger sibling in a very large, very quiet family.
'We should treat our lives as a learning experience to determine whether any of our neighbours are visiting us,' Loeb said. He likens potential alien visitors to a 'more accomplished sibling,' whose mere existence forces humanity to reassess its ambitions and priorities.
That sense of perspective is at the heart of his argument. Human civilisation, Loeb notes, has enjoyed only about a century of what we would recognise as modern science and technology. In that short window, humanity has leapt from early flight to satellites, nuclear power and artificial intelligence. If humans can achieve that in 100 years, he suggests, imagine what a civilisation with a million-year head start might look like.
Loeb's comments fold neatly into a broader, more political story.Trump ordered the release of US government files on UFOs, and has repeatedly teased that his administration uncovered intriguing material. The details of those discoveries, if any, remain opaque.
SomeUFO enthusiasts and researchers worry that the full picture will never be made public. There is a long history of partial disclosures and heavily redacted documents, and a deep suspicion that defence and intelligence agencies will hold back the most sensitive evidence.
Loeb shares some of that caution but does not sound conspiratorial. He expects any release to arrive in waves, beginning with less sensitive material, particularly video recordings. 'It's unclear whether the most intriguing data will be released in the first wave,' he acknowledged.
Source: International Business Times UK
