That is really scary. I think AI would generate something that didn’t sound quite as much bullshit. The really annoying thing is that most university managements now seem to be operating in a way that discourage the sentiments expressed here. And ‘brand’! Come on!

So sad! Part of my life, but I guess telescopes are not alive

Done

Enjoying the politics and the jokes

Quite fascinating. Interesting that most of them said that they had never articulated these views to anyone else

Sounds the same as what’s happening in the UK - plunging numbers of international students due to visa changes, which had been used to plug the gap from domestic tuition fees (which the politicians won’t allow to rise for political reasons)

Not sure I believed the arguments against the ‘hard steps’ model, which was a little depressing. But my positive take was that the upcoming searches for bio signatures on exoplanets will be a nice empirical test

Never heard of the ‘hard steps’ model until I read this. It does provide a neat explanation of the Fermi Paradox. Not sure I believe the authors’ arguments against

Sorry to hear you’ve left astronomy