I recently finished reading the fantastic bestseller extraterrestrial: The First Sign Of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth by astrophysicist Avi Loeb. Among many other accomplishments, Loeb is the Frank B. Baird Junior Professor of Science at Harvard, and his sixth book presents his theory that the object known as Oumuamua, which passed through our solar system in October 2017, was our first recorded contact with an extraterrestrial object. His theory, both at the time and now, has been met by the scientific community with attitudes ranging from skepticism to outright rejection. In general, the book discusses how the scientific community refuses to acknowledge some of the basic theories required to advance the field of extraterrestrial research. This week’s Faux Show focuses on music related to the science presented in the book.

It has been a few months since I’ve made a straight-forward Faux Show with a lengthy introduction, but this week I will take some time to discuss some of the concepts presented in Loeb’s book. There is a lot to digest, so this promises to be a very long intro that will make up for all of the short intros over the holidays.

First of all, let me make it clear that I one hundred percent do not believe that any person, animal, plant, or anything else on our planet has ever been abducted, sampled, captured, or in any way taken into possession by an alien, U.F.O., or any other extraterrestrial being. This is the stuff of science fiction and fantasy, and is an important point to be made by anyone who discusses the existence of extraterrestrial life, whether a simpleton blogger or an astrophysicist. I can’t explain why people claim to have been abducted or to have seen U.F.O.’s, and I don’t have an interest in knowing why they do so. I assume there is a logical reason that they do so, and that is about as much thought as I tend to give the topic. This doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy watching films and tv shows, reading books, or listening to podcasts about U.F.O.’s and alien abductions, but I view it all as fiction. This is an important point, however, because there is a conceit made when people claim to believe in the existence of extraterrestrial life which connects that belief to a belief in flying saucers. Unfortunately, by default, this conceit often places a belief in extraterrestrials outside the realm of serious discussion.

So, what exactly is an extraterrestrial? Common usage of the term often denotes little green men or, if you are better-versed in alien theory, long skinny beings with translucent skin, large oblong heads, and the ability to communicate non-verbally. Based on the film Close Encounters, they also share a love of music (G-A-F-F-C). However, the term actually just denotes anything that comes from outside of the earth or it’s atmosphere. In his book, Loeb details his evidence for why it is more likely that the object known as Oumuamua is extraterrestrial than a comet or some other naturally occurring object. I won’t attempt to summarize his arguments here, but his book debunks most of the common arguments for Oumuamua being a comet. Based on all of the evidence, he instead hypothesizes that it is a form of light sail, a manufactured object that uses the light of a star to propel itself through space. If he is correct, then this object was, in fact, the first extraterrestrial object ever observed in our solar system. Unfortunately, Loeb’s hypotheses goes against the common thinking of almost all experts in the study of the universe.

So, why do some people, such as Loeb, believe that it is unlikely we are the only life in the universe? This is obviously not a simple question to answer. One interesting topic he discusses is the Fermi Paradox. Simply stated, this is the idea that if there is extraterrestrial life why haven’t we encountered it yet, or as Fermi supposedly said during a lunch with friends in 1950 while discussing U.F.O. reports, “But where is everybody?” This belief that if life is so easy to create then we would know by now that we are not alone is one of the fundamental problems addressed in Loeb’s book. How can we, as an intelligent and inquisitive species, progress in our attempt to learn about the universe if we don’t first accept that we are most likely not the only intelligent and inquisitive species in the universe? It is one the grandest examples of humankind’s hubris and arrogance that we, as a species, believe we are the only intelligent beings in the universe. Evidence to prove this arrogant belief is often given in the fact that we have no proof of extraterrestrial life that has been collected or observed. In my opinion, the veracity of the Fermi Paradox can be easily refuted if we simply look at the question from the point of view of another intelligent life form out there somewhere in the universe. Assuming that there is intelligent life out there, they definitely share one quality with us. That is, they have never collected nor observed any evidence that we exist in the universe either. And yet, here we are – living, killing, loving, eating, sleeping, blogging, and going about our daily business unaware of their existence. And if they also believe themselves to be the only life in the universe, then they share one other quality with us – the arrogance of believing something so unlikely.

Another common argument presented by those who believe in extraterrestrial life is the data on the number of planets in the universe capable of producing life. We now know that there are well over four thousand planets in the universe and many of them share similarities to our own with regard to the ability to support life. The existence of these exoplanets has been assumed since a paper published by astronomer Otto Strume in 1952, but it wasn’t until 1995 that the scientific community seriously studied their existence. Let’s just ignore the amount of information we could know by now if the bias of the scientific community wasn’t present over those many decades. Luckily, during the last fifteen years, we have developed telescopes powerful enough to prove the existence of these exoplanets, and we now know that over twenty-five percent of all of the stars in the universe are orbited by planets similar to Earth in size and surface temperature. This means they may, and many certainly must, contain water and the other building blocks of life.

Given this logical narrative, why is it that we have never collected any evidence of life in the universe? One common explanation is that the universe is large (obviously) and the time that civilizations exist is extremely short in comparison. Using Earth as an example, the amount of time that life has existed on our planet is relatively short, and the amount of that time during which humans have existed is a mere blip on the universal timeline. Shorter still is the amount of time we have had the technological ability required to collect evidence of the existence of extraterrestrial life, which at this point is about one hundred years. This means that in order for one generation of humans to discover this evidence, it must exist at the same time the evidence enters our solar system, be working to find that evidence, and be willing to accept that evidence as proof of extraterrestrial life. This confluence of contemporaneous occurrences will most likely not happen by chance.

This need to purposefully undertake the work needed to find the evidence is a final theme of Loeb’s book and is explained by what he terms “Oumuamua’s wager.” Simply stated, this is a decision that humankind must make as to whether or not we are willing to accept the belief that we are not alone. If we choose to accept that wager, then the amount of information we can gather is impossible to quantify or qualify. If we accept this wager, then we will be able to expend our resources in a way that allows us to search for evidence similar to that provided by Oumuamua, but in a more determined way. Using the analogy of Occam’s razor, the concept that the simplest solution is the right solution, Oumuamua being of extraterrestrial origin rather than a comet that displays properties unlike any other object we have ever studied makes the most sense. Unfortunately, as Loeb says, Occam’s razor often struggles to shave an arrogant chin.

The discovery of Oumuamua was pure chance, but what if we prepare for the next encounter of this type so that we not only collect similar data but ensure better data, such as images of the object collected, perhaps from rockets sent to intercept it on its path past our tiny speck of a planet? Only in this way can we expect to progress toward the answers to the ultimate questions that humankind has been asking since the first person looked up at the stars. Why are we here? Are we alone? What is meaning of life?

Songs for this week’s theme:

The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (S.E.T.I.) has been going on since the invention of radio in the early 20th century. From the earliest days of radio, when Tesla suggested that he could intercept waves from Mars, up through the modern investigation by groups such as Stephen Hawking’s Breakthrough Listen, humankind has been attempting to make contact with the universe. In addition to many officially funded groups searching for contact, thousands of amateur groups have been formed over the decades, all with a shared goal of finding out what else is out there. Many of these groups use some form of the term SETI in their titles, and all of them focus on some form of detection system. The methods include searching for radio waves, microwaves, lasers, quantum transmissions, and any number of physical objects that could prove the existence of alien technology and/or communication.

John Williams “Wild Signals”: This is the song that everyone over the age of fifty had burned into their brain as a youngster after watching Spielberg’s classic tale of extraterrestrial contact over and over.

Speed of Lights “S.E.T.I.”: This song by Japanese group Speed of Lights is an interesting metaphor that is really just a love song, but it is catchy.

The Carpenters “Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft (The Recognized Anthem of World Contact Day)”: This song was originally released in 1973 by Canadian band Klaatu, named after the alien ambassador in the cold-war classic The Day The Earth Stood Still. The Carpenters’ version was released in 1977 and was amazingly a Top 40 hit. Their release was accompanied by the tagline The Recognized Anthem Of World Contact Day. Many people wrote the band to inquire about World Contact Day, which led to a tv special called The Carpenters…Space Encounters. Nowadays, Marvel and Star Wars movies rule the cinema and tv screens, but back in the late seventies we were all obsessed with U.F.O.s due to Spielberg’s film and In Search Of…

Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile “FRB”: A fast radio burst (FRB) is a radio pulse that releases a massive amount of energy in only a few milliseconds. The first actual FRB was discovered in 2007, but we still do not understand the process that produces these celestial events. Meyer, bass, and Thile, mandolin, are both Grammy-Award winning musicians and this song is from their 2008 album of virtuosic duets. I assume that it is about fast radio bursts. 

A light sail, or solar sail, is an object that uses the radiation pressure exerted by sunlight in order to create the propulsion needed for space travel. The concept of light sails has been over four centuries in the making. The science behind the technology has been growing since Kepler determined that comet tails point away from the sun in 1610. In the 19th century, Jules Verne predicted that solar radiation would someday be used for space travel, and the first half of the 20th century was filled with scientific papers on the concept. This all led to the first development of light sail technology in the ’80s and the launch of the first successful light sail in 2010.

The basic hypothesis presented in Loeb’s book is that the simplest explanation for Oumuamua is that it is a light sail. One of Loeb’s many endeavors is as part of a group working toward sending a small camera to the Alpha Centauri system. By using a light sail that can travel at 25% the speed of light, the camera could reach the system in approximately twenty years. Loeb’s version would use a high powered laser instead of sunlight, and once the initial device is launched, the cost of launching thousands more decreases drastically. This is incredibly exciting stuff and could change everything we think we know about the universe.

Free Ratikals Saturated Energy Band “Light Sails”: This band is a space-rock trio who record in their basement. They have self-released dozens of songs over the last few years, mostly about space science.

Billy Riley & His Little Green Men “Flying Saucer Rock and Roll”: You can’t make a playlist about extraterrestrials without at least one song about flying saucers. This early Sun Records recording has always been one of my favorites.

Creedence Clearwater Revival “It Came Out Of The Sky”: This isn’t the most famous song on CCR’s classic Willie & The Poor Boys album, but it has always been one of my favorites. It tells the satirical story of a farmer finding an alien object, perhaps a meteor or UFO (it isn’t clear), and the greedy attempts by several world leaders to profit from the discovery. It all ends with the protagonist demanding seventeen million dollars for the object. It is a Chuck Berry styled rock and roll song that makes a simple political point that rings as true today as it did over fifty years ago.

An extinction level event, or ELE, is any event that occurs on our planet with the result of relatively quickly destroying our planet’s biodiversity, especially that of multicellular organisms. The most famous ELE is whatever caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. However, we are in the middle of a long, drawn-out ELE if we don’t reverse climate change. Someday, this will most likely be the most famous ELE, although we won’t be around to talk about it. Science believes that there have been six ELE’s on our planet so far.

Aside from climate change, the future ELE to worry about is impact on our planet by some interstellar object. You can also worry about giant spaceships coming down and colonizing our planet, enslaving all of us, but that one seems much less likely.

Can “One More Night”: Sooner or later the Earth is going to have exactly that much time left before it is destroyed. If we’re lucky it will be billions of years from now when the sun explodes. If we’re not careful, it will be witnessed by humankind. But don’t let that keep you up at night.

Ariana Grande “Just Look Up”: If humankind is around to see an ELE, this may be all they have to do to see it happen. In a metaphorical sense, we can “just look up” now and see our Earth being destroyed by climate change. The truth is, there has never been a time in humankind’s history when we couldn’t “just look up” and see how we are on the path toward our own destruction, especially since the beginning of World War I in 1914. But don’t let that keep you up at night.

These lyrics from Grande’s song at the end of the film Don’t Look Up are perfect, whether taken literally in the context of a comet hitting the earth, or metaphorically as a warning about climate change, as the film intends.

Look up, what he’s really trying to say
Is get your head out of your ass
Listen to the goddamn qualified scientists
We really fucked it up, fucked it up this time
It’s so close, I can feel the heat big time
And you can act like everything is alright
But this is probably happening in real time
Celebrate or cry or pray, whatever it takes
To get you through the mess we made
‘Cause tomorrow may never come

Irving Mills was a music publisher, musician, manager, promoter, singer, lyricist, and bandleader who was important in the success of jazz during the middle of the twentieth century. In 1919, Irving and his brother Jack co-founded Jack Mills, Inc., which later became Mills Music, Inc. This group was successful up until being sold in 1963, and the catalog is still profitable and currently managed, after several purchases, by Sony Music. Among the most lucrative songs in the original Mills Music catalog are “Stardust,” “Sleigh Ride,” “When You’re Smiling,” and “Mood Indigo.”

Some of the great songwriters discovered by Irving and Jack Mills include Hoagy Carmichael, Jimmy McHugh, and Dorothy Fields. Mills also discovered and/or advanced the careers of some of the pioneers of jazz, such as Cab Calloway and Benny Goodman, as well as electronic music pioneer Raymond Scott. Most importantly, Mills discovered young Duke Ellington when he was the leader of a six-piece band in 1925. Mills signed Ellington the day after he first heard him and managed him from 1925 to 1939. During this time, he was instrumental in getting Duke Ellington his legendary gig at the Cotton Club.

Mills was also an innovator. He was one of the first producers to record black and white musicians together, most notably on the 1928 Duke Ellington Orchestra recording of “St. Louis Blues.” This recording included twelve white musicians playing with the Duke Ellington Orchestra, and even Mills himself singing. The song was recorded for Victor Records, which soon became RCA Victor, and when the label informed Mills that they would not release a record with a mixed-race group of musicians he threatened to remove all of his artists from the label, thus resulting in this landmark recording being released as Mills intended.

Another Mills innovation was the band within a band. Starting in 1928, he recorded small groups made up of members of the Mills Music, Inc. big bands. In this way, he was able to sell recordings to small, cheap labels even when his stars were under contract with bigger labels. Not only was this lucrative, but he realized the importance of solos in jazz and knew that sales would increase if he could educate non-professionals on the theories behind soloing. Therefore, these small group records often included transcriptions of the solos to show how they were constructed, thus influencing the next generation of jazz musicians.

His name is now all but forgotten outside of the work of jazz historians, but Irving Mills was arguably responsible for the success of Duke Ellington, which means he was responsible for much of the evolution of jazz, and therefore R&B, rock and roll, and all music to follow – not bad for a man born in 1894 in the Ukraine.

Aaliyah was a very successful singer and actress whose career was about to explode into superstardom when she tragically died in a plane crash at the age of 22.

Bob Bogle was a co-founder of The Ventures. He often played bass, but he plays lead guitar on the band’s classic “Walk, Don’t Run”.

Ernesto Bonino was an Italian pop singer and a huge star in the ’40s.

John Carpenter directed some of the best films of the ’70s and ’80s, including Halloween, Escape from New York, and The Thing. He also composed the scores for all of his films and for that reason is an electronic music pioneer.

Maxine Jones is a co-founder of En Vogue, one of the most successful female acts in history, and sings lead vocals on many of their hits, including “My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It).”

Roy Lanham was a member of the Sons of the Pioneers from 1961-1986. He was also a prolific western swing and jazz guitarist. He plays electric guitar on the 1949 Delmore Brothers tune “Blues Stay Away From Me.”

Barbara Lynn is a blues singer most famous for her Number One 1962 R&B hit “You’ll Lose a Good Thing.” She is a renowned blues artist who received a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts in 2018. That is an incredibly great accomplishment.

Irving Mills: See Artist of the Week

Ronnie Milsap was one of the biggest country stars of the ’70s and ’80s. He had forty Number One country hits and sold over 35 million records.

Ray Philips was the lead singer for the ’60s Welsh rock band The Nashville Teens.

Paul Raven was the bassist for Killing Joke.

Sade has never been very prolific, and for that reason is often overlooked as one of the greatest female soul artists of her generation.

Ezra Sims was a composer of microtonal music.

Damo Suzuki was the second, and most important, vocalist for the incredibly influential German band Can. The trilogy of records featuring Suzuki on vocals are experimental rock classics.

Rick” Thompson was the guitarist for B.T. Express.

Nick Valensi is the guitarist for The Strokes.

Conny Vandenbos was a popular Dutch singer in the ’60s and ’70s. She represented The Netherlands in the 1965 Eurovision Song Contest.

Paul Webb was the bassist for Talk Talk. Although their first two albums produced their hits, their trilogy of albums that came after laid the foundation for the post-rock of the ’90s and are beloved by anyone lucky enough to discover them. The album Laughing Stock is one of the best albums that no one knows.

Hits

The Carpenters “Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft”

En Vogue “My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It)”

Ronnie Milsap “I Wouldn’t Have Missed It For The World”

Nashville Teens “Tobacco Road”

The Ventures “Walk, Don’t Run”

2 for “Two”day

Billie Eilish “all the good girls go to hell” and “Halley’s Comet”

New

Bend The Wise “We Came From The Stars”

Billie Eilish “Halley’s Comet”

Ariana Grande “Just Look Up”