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In a move raising questions about transparency and control, the International Academy of Astronautics’ SETI Committee has released a new scientific paper of its post-detection protocols—fifteen years after the last update—redefining who can communicate with potential extraterrestrial intelligence. The revised framework, submitted on October 16, 2025, effectively centralizes post-detection communication authority to a narrow circle of authorized scientists, government agencies, and international bodies. The timing of this release—amid soaring global fascination with the interstellar object 3I ATLAS—has not gone unnoticed.
By Samuel Lopez | USA Herald
USA HERALD – The newly published paper, “SETI Post-Detection Protocols Progress Towards a New Version”, authored by Michael A. Garrett, Kathryn Denning, Leslie I. Tennen, and Carol Oliver, represents the most sweeping reform to humanity’s extraterrestrial communication policy since 2010. It replaces the decades-old decentralized posture with one that makes explicit: no individual, research group, or private actor is permitted to reply to any potential alien signal without first obtaining international approval through official channels—chiefly, the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS).
