As a man of Science, I have refused to subject myself to the notion that 3i/Atlas—that's a 3 and i, not a 1, FYI—is anything more than a rock hurtling through space at breakneck speed. I have ignored the topic until now because I knew all along that it was always going to be a rock and not the fleet of alien ships that so many gullible humans have been hyping themselves up for.

One of the great things about 3i/Atlas is that it took time to get here—several months, in fact. This has allowed everyone—and by everyone I mean astronomers and scientists—to prepare for its arrival and try to get factual information about it.

I will not be going into its latest data here or the science behind comets. This is literally one of the biggest stories out there, and there are endless sources from which you can whet your appetite on conspiracy and factual information.

Instead, I bring up 3i/Atlas in this moment to point out what should already be abundantly clear to anyone paying attention: no human, nor dare I say machine, can accurately predict what something so far away is based on blurry images and speculative conclusions.

Those proclaiming otherwise aren't—real scientists, or they are in it for the money. This can be from merchandise they hawk to memberships to their content. A lot of the social media influencers propping up the 3i/Atlas mother ship armada lie use terms like "Could be" and "What if," so this way, when it turns out to be the rock we all know it will be, they can get away without being labeled charlatans.

Now, many will tell you that they weren't fooled all along and were just exploring all possibilities. Never underestimate a human's need to save face, especially when they are wrong.

Now that the romance is over, 3i/Atlas is on its way to wherever it was headed before it entered our solar system. You will hear people say they know where it's headed; there will be podcasts and endless YouTube videos where everyone copies each other's content and tries to one-up the other with broad and vague hypotheses about its final destination.

The so-called experts will tell you they know exactly where it's headed. After it comes out that it's changed course only slightly, the likely destination is toward Jupiter. This will get the attention of more conspiracy theorists, and they will argue that the moons of Jupiter are excellent places for an alien species to colonize.

Yeah, sure, scientifically speaking—and, of course, this is their opinion—but as we just saw, everyone won't state it's their opinion. Instead, they will use whatever perceived credibility they have to go all in and push another false narrative. It's all about gaining clicks and making money. It feels so inherently cheap and dirty, but this is what passes for entertainment and news these days.

I still maintain one of my long-running ideas: that nothing is as it seems—this world we live in, and the subsequent solar system, galaxy, and universe aren't what we are led to believe they are. And that nothing will ever truly change—not on a cosmic scale, certainly not on a human one—and we will all just keep on keeping on. That's a guarantee.