I can’t help but think of barbaric tribes that would continuously sacrifice humans to the sun god and find that the weather coincidentally improves. The problem is that eventually, on a long enough timeframe, the weather eventually does improve. So they find reasons for why it takes 3 humans instead of 5. And it’s usually based on factors you can’t measure like this one is a virgin or that one is pure of heart or beautiful.
Discussion
fwiw Rupert Sheldrake speculates about the complexity of the human brain vs other entities in the universe, and then goes on to point out that stars are much more complex than the human brain. He then speculates there could be information transmitted by the sun to humans. And others who work with NASA then discuss the human dna as a possible receiver (see “tyler” in Diana Walsh Pasulka’s book, American Cosmic) 