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That's partially fair, but it is not really helpful to estimates of the reliability of his current work to point out that in the past, before he got all loopy, his work was reliable.

The fact that he's gone all loopy recently is absolutely the most important context for deciding if you want to take his word on faith or not.


Nobody, and let me be clear, absolutely nobody should take Loeb's word for anything at all. His schtick for the last half decade or so is a dressed up 'God of the Gaps' argument, where everything he can't explain is aliens and if someone is able to show better explanations it's not science working but people bullying him.

Which is completely fair. He's done it to himself. No quarrels from me. But there's also a understandable urge to toss everything and that's an overreaction. Pauling being a crank is his late career doesn't mean he didn't deserve the Nobel for his earlier career, and likewise Loeb is/was very important to modern cosmology, you just have to ignore most of what he's published since 2017 or so.

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