UFOs, UAPs, aliens and such have been all the buzz for a few years now on social media and in tabloids. With the arrival of 3I/ATLAS in the solar system, which was spotted on July 01, 2025, the anticipation of official confirmation of extraterrestrial intelligence has only grown louder. The CIA’s explicit silence on the matter only has added fuel to conspiracy theories, even as the interstellar interloper, the third ever to cross paths with us since 1I/Oumuamua (2017) and 2I/Borisov (2019), flew past Earth at the closest on December 19 by 1.8 AU ie 270 million kilometers.
The Harvard astrophysicist, who has till now flagged no less than 18 anomalies on the interstellar comet, has been triggering the status quo on the nature of 3I/ATLAS. While a major chunk of data is yet to arrive from several probes and observatories, the ones we currently have have divided the academia and the lay, who have grown on a fodder of sci-fi and speculations that disappointed in the end. Avi Loeb famously dubbed the October 27 perihelion event of 3I/ATLAS as a possible black swan event that would render all our material possessions and money useless if the object turned out to be a craft driven by an engine of extraterrestrial origin. Nothing of that sort has happened.
Amid all the 3I/ATLAS, Helen McCaw, a former analyst, has urged the Bank of England to prep for a possible financial crisis that would be triggered in the event of an official confirmation of the existence of aliens! In her white paper written for the SOL foundation, entitled, “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Policy Implications for the Government of the United Kingdom,” McCaw quips,
There is legitimate reason to conjecture that in the near future, the US government will publicly disclose that a technologically advanced non-human intelligence (NHI) is responsible for UAP (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon) and engaging with humanity and the planet.
She further adds
If UAP prove not to be designed by human beings, then we are dealing with unprecedented issues of existential consequence for humanity. We would have to acknowledge the existence and terrestrial presence of a technologically advanced non-human intelligence. Humanity would enter a new paradigm of greater significance than even the Copernican Revolution.
If there is verified information about NHI (Non-human Intelligence), it should not be the sole preserve of governments. Humanity has a moral right to know.
See Also: Declassified CIA Files Allege Aliens Attacked Soviet Soldiers, Turned Them Into Stones
McCaw further highlights the financial instability that might follow the disclosure.
UAP disclosure presents risks to financial stability because of the potential impact of disclosure and paradigm-changing UAP-related technologies on existing financial markets. The Bank of England should take action to address the UAP risk in order to avoid financial instability, particularly given the inarguably global nature of financial markets.
Remarking on the same, Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb noted in his recent medium blog on Alien Intelligence
As soon as the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS was discovered to follow a trajectory that is nearly aligned with the orbital plane of the planets around the Sun, I urged policymakers to make contingency plans for a “black swan event.” Even if the a priori probability of 3I/ATLAS being an alien spacecraft is small, the societal implications from it carrying technology could be huge. It therefore makes sense to collect as much data as possible about it in order to assess the potential risk from anomalies that deviate from the familiar characteristics of natural comets. Ignoring such a risk is common among scientists who focus on the most likely scenario to protect their reputation but is unwise for policymakers who worry about the devastating implications of low-probability catastrophes for society.
Cover: Avi Loeb & Grok AI