The late physicist **Stephen Hawking** is back in global headlines following the resurfacing of his stark warnings about contacting extraterrestrial life—just as a new interstellar object, **3I/ATLAS**, ignites speculation over potential alien origins and threats UNILAD details his alien caution and **Times of India** discusses the mysterious object dubbed 31/ATLAS approaching the Sun on cosmic implications.
Hawking repeatedly argued that any attempt to broadcast Earth’s location to deep space was a mistake. He cautioned that if **advanced alien civilizations** were to visit, the outcome could mirror the tragic consequences Native Americans faced after Columbus arrived. “We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet,” Hawking said, cautioning that colonization or exploitation—not friendship—could follow Express explores his alien doomsday metaphor and **UNILAD emphasizes** his opposition to active messaging into space on avoiding METI-style transmissions.
“If aliens ever visit us, the outcome might be much as when Columbus landed in America—it didn’t turn out well for Native Americans.”
Hawking drew a clear line between **passive listening**—like SETI and Breakthrough Listen—and **sending greetings**. While he supported research into signals, he warned that transmitting Earth’s coordinates could make us targets for unknown civilizations possessing unimaginable capabilities as UNILAD reports and **Express notes** his repeated public objections to METI efforts.
Hawking’s warning resurfaces amidst studies on the **“intelligence trap”**, suggesting that overconfidence in our assumptions about alien behavior may blind us to real danger. Harvard astrophysicist **Avi Loeb**—following his controversial proposal that 3I/ATLAS could be artificial—adds urgency, arguing that unusual trajectories deserve scientific scrutiny regardless of skepticism UNILAD on intelligence trap concept and **Times of India on Harvard’s alien probe hypothesis** linked to prophecy speculation.
The comet is projected to pass within **223 million miles** of Earth—close enough to renew fears that if the object is engineered, we may not be prepared for encounter. As space agencies share more UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena) data, public and political interest in alien intelligence surges—and so does the resonance of Hawking’s warning UNILAD ties it to declassified UFO evidence.
Historically, Hawking’s warnings stood in contrast to more hopeful figures like **Carl Sagan**, who advocated for cautious optimism. But today’s renewed focus on unexplained objects and alien possibility lends weight to Hawking’s pragmatic caution: that **silence may be safer than broadcast**, and that cosmic curiosity could carry existential risk Express again summarises cautionary tone.
As debates heat up about whether to send targeted messages to exoplanets, or simply monitor passively, Hawking’s analogy remains haunting: technologically advanced beings meeting primitive civilizations rarely turned out benevolent on Earth. With Stanton Glenn warning reopening that logic and 31/ATLAS stirring speculation, Hawking’s words feel less hypothetical and more urgent than ever.
