03 Sep 2026 2 min read announcement

Avi Loeb: UAPs, Non-human intelligence - evidence & implications

20th Oct, 6-8pm UK / 7-9pm CET / 1-3pm ET | Dialogue with Bernardo Kastrup

“Unknown does not mean extraterrestrial, but it also should not be explained away without evidence.” — Avi Loeb

Few subjects produce unexamined certainty as quickly as "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena." Some people immediately assume aliens. Others assume a hoax. Avi Loeb begins somewhere less dramatic and more interesting: the search for better evidence.

Professor Avi Loeb is a Harvard astrophysicist and leads the Galileo Project, a systematic scientific search for possible technological artefacts beyond Earth. He now chairs the UAP Science Advisory Council reviewing unclassified government data and advising on evidence, instrumentation, analysis and standards for future investigation.

Stay curious

Avi and Bernardo previously met in a spirited 2023 dialogue about aliens, consciousness and scientific curiosity. They shared a desire to keep science open to anomalies, but approached reality from very different directions: Avi has argued that consciousness emerges from physical systems, while Bernardo argues that consciousness is fundamental.

This time, we’ll begin with what can actually be known. How can UAPs be investigated without either credulity or premature dismissal? Are “nuts-and-bolts” sightings and high-strangeness encounters different phenomena, or two faces of the same mystery? And if non-human intelligence were established, would it merely enlarge our picture of the universe, or transform our understanding of consciousness and reality?

I’m delighted to welcome Avi to With Reality in Mind for a live dialogue with Bernardo, followed by questions from our community.

For background materials from Avi to the questions, see: https://avi-loeb.medium.com/
or the full listing at: https://lweb.cfa.harvard.edu/~loeb/Opinion.html

About Avi Loeb

Professor Abraham “Avi” Loeb is an astrophysicist and the Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard University. His work ranges from black holes and the early universe to the search for life and technology beyond Earth. He served as chair of Harvard’s Astronomy Department from 2011 to 2020 and is the founding director of its Black Hole Initiative.

Avi leads the Galileo Project, which uses scientific instruments to search systematically for possible extraterrestrial technological artefacts. He became widely known after arguing that an artificial origin for ‘Oumuamua, the first recognised interstellar object, should be considered rather than ruled out in advance.

He now chairs the UAP Science Advisory Council, which advises a US government interagency board on evidence, instrumentation and data standards for investigating unidentified anomalous phenomena. He is the author of more than 800 scientific papers and several books, including Extraterrestrial and Interstellar.