July 2025
Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb points to recently discovered differences in the genomes of apes and humans, and plays with the idea that our species might be the product of some extraterrestrial intervention.
Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb. PHOTO: Christoper Michel / Wikimedia
Loeb, who heads The Galileo Project at Harvard University’s Center for Astrophysics, makes a reference in an essay to the monolith and the chimpanzees in Stanley Kubrick’s film, “2001: A Space Odyssey”. “Perhaps extraterrestrials visited Earth a few million years ago and installed a monolith, metaphorically speaking”, he writes. “During that visit, some chimpanzees were endowed with consciousness and became the human species. In that case … the monolith is right in front of our eyes but we fail to recognize its extraterrestrial origin in the mirror”.
A recent study published in Nature reported that complete sequences of ape genomes show a mere 14% to 14.9% genetic difference between humans and chimpanzees. “One path to interstellar archaeology is to examine these differences and search for parts that could have been manipulated by interstellar visitors”, Loeb writes.
The astrophysics professor’s suggestions echo bold interpretations of ancient texts like the Epic of Gilgamesh and other Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets. Could the interventionist “gods” described in those texts be actual beings that were once here?
They also tie into a biological particularity that human chromosome No. 2 is the result of a fusion of two pre-existing chromosomes at some point in evolution, according to a widely accepted theory. Great apes lack that fusion. They have 48 chromosomes, whereas humans have 46. Chromosome number 2 is largely responsible for brain development and intellectual functions.
When the (probable) chromosome fusion was confirmed in 2002, speculation took off as to the cause. Was it random mutation – a mainstream science position – or was it some kind of purposeful engineering, an intelligent intervention? Some critics of conventional evolutionary theory question a fusion altogether and instead posit an original human uniqueness.
“If superhuman alien intelligence exists, perhaps humans never were at the top of the interstellar food chain because most stars formed billions of years before the Sun. Acquiring this sense of humility will constitute the next Copernican revolution” Loeb writes.
Anders Bolling
