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Here's a video essay from an astrophysicist about Avi Loeb (though she's transitioned to the private sector, I believe software engineering but I may be mistake

Here's a video essay from an astrophysicist about Avi Loeb (though she's transitioned to the private sector, I believe software engineering but I may be mistaken): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY985qzn7oI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY985qzn7oI [1 hour] The video predates the spherecule stuff and focuses on his assertion 'Oumuamua was "most likely" debris from an extraterrestrial spacecraft. Tl;Dw: he doesn't seem to have a good reputation within the SETI community, and Dr. Collie's personal opinion is that many of these papers are insubstantial; he often publishes a couple paragraphs proposing a thought experiment or cool idea, more blog posts than research.

z7 3y ago
>Dr. Collie's personal opinion is that many of these papers are insubstantial; he often publishes a couple paragraphs proposing a thought experiment or cool idea, more blog posts than research. Then I wonder how he got 55542 citations? Why are scientists citing blog posts? https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=CvQxOmwAAAAJ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=CvQxOmwAAAAJ
- tptacek 3y ago
  (1) Nobody seems to dispute that Loeb has in the past done important work. (2) Very little of his recent work seems highly cited. (3) He has a team of grad students working on their own projects (from a video posted on this thread, amusingly, he cites an anecdote about his grad students expressing concern about the volume of superficial publishing he'd been doing and the implications on their own careers). (4) Some of his publishing seems strategic, an effort to do the minimum possible work, assisted by his status to get things published, so that he can claim a place in the cite record for ideas that other scientists do the real work on (the video again has some examples). (5) Is 50,000+ citations that many? I have to scroll through at least 5 pages of astronomy/astrophysics professors to get down to that count on Scholar, and Loeb is late-career, high-status.

z7 3y ago

>Dr. Collie's personal opinion is that many of these papers are insubstantial; he often publishes a couple paragraphs proposing a thought experiment or cool idea, more blog posts than research. Then I wonder how he got 55542 citations? Why are scientists citing blog posts? https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=CvQxOmwAAAAJ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=CvQxOmwAAAAJ

tptacek 3y ago
(1) Nobody seems to dispute that Loeb has in the past done important work. (2) Very little of his recent work seems highly cited. (3) He has a team of grad students working on their own projects (from a video posted on this thread, amusingly, he cites an anecdote about his grad students expressing concern about the volume of superficial publishing he'd been doing and the implications on their own careers). (4) Some of his publishing seems strategic, an effort to do the minimum possible work, assisted by his status to get things published, so that he can claim a place in the cite record for ideas that other scientists do the real work on (the video again has some examples). (5) Is 50,000+ citations that many? I have to scroll through at least 5 pages of astronomy/astrophysics professors to get down to that count on Scholar, and Loeb is late-career, high-status.