Spielberg’s Disclosure Day gets alien search wrong

SETI post-detection – Steven Spielberg’s new sci-fi film “Disclosure Day” leans on a familiar claim: aliens are here, and a government conspiracy is stopping the truth. Researchers involved with SETI’s post-detection protocols say that premise flips reality. If evidence of extrater

Steven Spielberg’s “Disclosure Day” has a simple hook for anyone who’s ever watched the stars with a skeptical grin: someone has evidence that aliens are real and visiting Earth—and the world is being kept in the dark.

In the film, a shadowy government organization is the barrier. In the real world, the people who have spent decades planning for the day a signal might turn into something undeniable say the story’s premise doesn’t match how the search is supposed to work.

“There’s no effort to keep it secret. If we [get] a signal, it’s going to be out there. The next step is transparency,” Carol Oliver says. Oliver is a professor of science communication and astrobiology at the University of New South Wales in Australia. and one of the architects behind the latest version of the SETI Post-Detection Protocols. which are set to be codified later this year.

“The community in general has agreed that’s the ethical thing to do,” she adds.

The protocols were built for a world that changes the moment a possible detection becomes more than a curiosity. The first postdetection protocols were adopted by the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) in 1989. They mostly focused on searches for radio signals from other cosmic civilizations.

The protocol document advises that any scientist who believes they have evidence of a possible signal should first seek verification from other researchers. If a signal is independently confirmed. the news should be shared “promptly. openly. and widely through scientific channels and public media.” It also calls for “international consultations” before any response is sent back.

SETI researchers last revised these protocols in 2010, and they say the update planned for this year is overdue. The revision is meant to account for the impact of the Internet and the proliferation of organizations with instruments aimed at the stars. The protocols aren’t binding; they’re guidance intended to coordinate researchers.

That coordination matters because of the modern reality of how findings travel. “Scientists are more available than they’ve ever been before via social media. ” says Michael Garrett. an astronomer at the University of Manchester in England and a co-author of the 2026 protocols. One worry Garrett and his colleagues highlight is that because more scientists promote their work publicly. any controversial findings could leave them vulnerable to backlash—online or offline.

The new protocols, Garrett says, acknowledge that academic institutions have responsibility for safety: they should take steps to protect researchers from potentially dangerous interactions with conspiracy theorists and other reactionary zealots.

The update also broadens the protocols’ scope beyond radio signals to other signs of alien technology—so-called technosignatures. The changes are designed to provide additional guidance for scientists who may not be part of the SETI community but might still stumble upon a potential signal from extraterrestrial intelligence.

The chance of that happening may sound remote. But Garrett points to the expanding search itself: more astronomical surveys are scrutinizing ever-larger swaths of the sky.

That brings a different kind of tension into “Disclosure Day.” In the film, secrecy is the central engine of suspense. Garrett says secrecy wouldn’t be the problem after detection.

“If someone had detected the signal, the problem would not be that we’d be able to keep it to ourselves,” he says. “The problem would be that it’d leak out long before it was verified.”

If everyone involved is supposed to share knowledge about aliens with the world, the question becomes harsher: why haven’t we found them yet?

One answer Oliver points to is the Rare Earth hypothesis. It argues that Earth is special—that producing intelligent life required 13.8 billion years of cosmic history and 4.6 billion years of Earth history. along with at least five planetary mass extinction events. The theory also hinges on an unknown number of potentially fatal “pratfalls” that must be avoided along the way. Oliver pairs that with the idea that technological civilizations may be inherently unstable. potentially burning out or fading away. making contact exceedingly rare—even “with all the numbers in our universe.”.

Another explanation is more about physics and distance. Aliens might be relatively common out there, but it could be too hard to reach us. In the 1960s. Russian astrophysicist Nikolai Kardashev described what became known as the Kardashev scale. linking a civilization’s ability to harness energy to its technological advancement. For interstellar travel. Garrett argues through the framing of the challenge: the odds seem long even for species reaching us from our nearest stellar neighbors in Alpha Centauri. about 4.4 light-years away. because the energies and timescales involved are enormous.

Then there’s the UFO question—one “Disclosure Day” leans on through its references to the Roswell incident of 1947. in which the U.S. government purportedly retrieved materials from a crashed alien spaceship. The story, the researchers say, has grown into a legend more than a scientific chapter. Many true believers treat it as a keystone event for the alien origins of unidentified flying objects.

But experts argue that the belief is stronger than the evidence. Garrett points to the realities of modern skies: “There are a lot of things up there. We have drones all over the place now. and they’re not all civilian drones; they’re for surveillance and all sorts of other purposes.” He continues: “If you look. you will find those things. But I don’t believe it’s alien intelligence.”.

Oliver says the public’s fixation on UFOs reflects what she calls a failure of scientific literacy. “In all I know about astrobiology and all I know about the universe and all I know about the energy requirement [for interstellar travel], it just doesn’t stack up,” she says.

For Oliver, even the way science fiction works matters. She acknowledges that movies can ask questions about the world and the limits of science; she cites Project Hail Mary as an example. But she doesn’t see “Disclosure Day” aiming at what’s most urgent in real research.

“Spielberg is working on feelings he’s had since [he was] a child,” Oliver says. “So that’s not scientific.”

SETI Post-Detection Protocols Carol Oliver Michael Garrett International Academy of Astronautics disclosure day technosignatures Kardashev scale Rare Earth hypothesis Roswell 1947 UAP interstellar travel