i will discuss the attractor conjecture for calabi-yau varieties, which was formulated by moore in the nineties, highlighting the difference between calabi-yau varieties with and without shimura moduli. in the shimura case, i show that the conjecture holds and gives rise to an explicit parametrization of cm points on certain shimura varieties; in the case without shimura moduli, i'll present counterexamples to the conjecture using unlikely intersection theory. \\ \\ part of this is joint work with arnav tripathy.