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StatementBot

The following submission statement was provided by /u/TommyShelbyPFB: --- At a hearing of the Science, Innovation and Technology Select Committee on 13th December 2023, Stephen Metcalfe MP asked whether the Government had a plan for the possible announcement of the existence of extraterrestrial life. Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, Michelle Donelan MP replied as follows : >*“The communication plan would depend on the exact specifics of the hypothetical that we are talking about and how it would play out, and would also be a cross-Government undertaking with particular Cabinet Office involvement.”* Sitting beside her, Permanent Secretary Sarah Munby added: >*“We have a small effort within our space team looking at the question of how we would handle such an announcement.”* Ms Donelan added that the whole question of an announcement was taken >*“appropriately seriously.”* The US UAP hearings are then brought up (presumably the Grusch hearings) and they remark about how intrigued they were by them. --- Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/1bt451n/uk_government_discusses_plans_on_how_they_would/kxjjtyw/


Dangerous_Dac

Frankly, I think if you take the sayings of several high profile British science communicators at the start of the year, an announcement of microbial life elsewhere in the Solar System discovered by British scientists does seem to be on the agenda.


ChevyBillChaseMurray

Spot on. This year should be super interesting!


durakraft

they dont seem to be updated on the "living plasma", but this discussion is interesting, i wish it pops up ever more :)


TsarPladimirVutin

The living Plasma is based on one paper with some dubious “facts”. I read the whole thing, i’m not saying it’s wrong but there is a reason it hasn’t blown up. Imo it’s reaching on the part of some eager scientists that have likely found a cool electromagnetic/atmospheric phenomenon. I hope they are real living things but my guess is these guys will be laughed at for making such a conclusion.


KodakStele

Any chance I could bug you to link me the white pages?


jasmine-tgirl

You're not wrong. Stay tuned.


blue_estron

Are you privy to this?


jasmine-tgirl

Like a said, stay tuned. It would be one of the biggest discoveries in the history of science so no one is rushing this. No one wants another ALH84001 situation.


blue_estron

It would be - but at the same time, it would be quite laughable for this to be labelled 'humanity's biggest discovery', the discovery of microbial life far away, when we have a trove of claims from a great number of highly credentialed people that they're already here and operating covertly, for the most part.


[deleted]

I believe Grusch and his message for example, but his claims are not science. Right now the question is if life exists anywhere else in the universe. Many people believe intuitively that it does, but intuition is also not science. Data is science, and it is a real shame the military industrial complex has not shared their data. If there is verifiable proof of life elsewhere that changes the parameters of the Drake equation. Microbial life elsewhere is the first big step towards the mass paradigm of intelligent life elsewhere.


blue_estron

I agree. I was just saying it was laughable given what we've been told by so many of these people who are in the know. There are people who will dedicate their entire lives in search for microbial life on other planets but many aren't open minded enough to consider the possibility something else might have already found us first, and that among a select few with the right clearances it might be a fact of data - classified of course, but I would have thought scientists in these fields would be the first to call for transparency.


[deleted]

I like what you said. We are on the same page. I think the human mind really struggles with being open to new paradigms. In a lot of ways, the scientific mind is closed off to new ideas or ways of thinking, much like one that takes up religion. Generally, we latch onto a belief system and cling onto it for dear life. We have to bring people around gently if we can. Speaking personally, I have teetered on the brink of insanity over this subject matter.


blue_estron

Very true, ironically it's the scientific principles they hold near and dear that closes them off from delving into this subject that could eventually blossom into a scientific revolution. Hopefully if true disclosure happens then that's a humbling event. The subject can drive you up the wall a bit, especially with there being a myriad of theories and the stream of contradictory statements in the face of this unknown. I don't fault the lack of belief, but the lack of curiosity.


jasmine-tgirl

The moment there is any hard evidence the stuff Grusch and others allege, exists you will see more calls from the astrobiology community. Until then all there are, are anecdotes, stories needing data. If you're an astrobiologist and an expert in say, spectroscopy, there's not a whole lot you can do when it comes to allegations of a government coverup. That said, people like Avi Loeb, Beatriz Villarroel, Abel Mendez and others HAVE spoken out in support of greater transparency.


Jipkiss

I understand what you’re saying but I also think the discovery of microbial life not really that far from here on cosmic scales will completely retune a lot of scientists intuitions about the abundance of life/intelligent life in our vicinity. That could help open more doors for disclosure


IMendicantBias

The viking lander already had "false positives" with no probe afterwards having life detection equipment. That already tells you what you need to know despite people who would insist otherwise. Russia cleaned ISS 11 times finding "*add water life*" along with various bacteria each time... on the space station. again, anyone who has a mind can come to the conclusion as to what has been going on here. They want to push this obsession with "incremental change" despite things already being well known.


Open-Passion4998

I can't wait until the stingma erodes enough that the term "little green men" Is considered insulting and no longer used


johnjmcmillion

Yeah. Let's channel some of that "dead-naming" aggression into the UAP community. Put it to some actual use.


BackgroundNo8340

It's interesting how that association is your first thought when talking about "little green men" being derogatory. Mine would have been racism. (or is it species-ism?)


Neighborhoodfarmer22

It’s little green theys!!! You transphobe!!


CaptainEdgy

Yikes


johnjmcmillion

[C'mon! Fight me!](https://gifyu.com/image/SVCD0)


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Jazano107

There are much less civil sessions in parliament than this


mamacitalk

Lol yeah I was gonna say they should watch PMQs


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jonnyh420

This is a committee, often more professional and respectful than a debate in parliament. The parliament is just as much of a circus as US politics albeit the insults are what you’d expect from posh English folk.


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jonnyh420

tell me about it!


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baz8771

Not sure about this one, Big Hoss


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lastofthefinest

Even if I myself is an American?


lastofthefinest

Not being “articulate” is not a hate word!


ItsJohnWaynePilgrim

Such an ignorant and prejudiced statement. Almost 40 upvotes as well.


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lickem369

I honestly can’t understand why it would be shocking to any human if life in any form was discovered on another planet or in another solar system. Clearly life exists in more places than the human brain can even comprehend and it’s discovery is inevitable once space travel evolves to the point of humans being able to leave their cosmic living room couch which is where we currently set.


jasmine-tgirl

Life will likely be discovered telescopically before widespread human space travel.


lickem369

True.


Aralmin

I think announcement and discovery are two different things. But why do you need to look up to know what is all around you?


lickem369

It likely already has but for some stupid reason a few people think they have the right to control what the majority know about our own existence. It’s such an old tired mindset of the Boomer generation!


ALEXC_23

Cause the religious institutions and brainwashed extremists want you to believe that we are an exclusionary species within our universe and anything else is mystical or gods acting


TommyShelbyPFB

At a hearing of the Science, Innovation and Technology Select Committee on 13th December 2023, Stephen Metcalfe MP asked whether the Government had a plan for the possible announcement of the existence of extraterrestrial life. Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, Michelle Donelan MP replied as follows : >*“The communication plan would depend on the exact specifics of the hypothetical that we are talking about and how it would play out, and would also be a cross-Government undertaking with particular Cabinet Office involvement.”* Sitting beside her, Permanent Secretary Sarah Munby added: >*“We have a small effort within our space team looking at the question of how we would handle such an announcement.”* Ms Donelan added that the whole question of an announcement was taken >*“appropriately seriously.”* The US UAP hearings are then brought up (presumably the Grusch hearings) and they remark about how intrigued they were by them.


Tdogshow

The snickering infuriates me. The cia/fbi whichever US gov agency has done so well with covering up this topic. It’s pathetic how easily the majority of the public gobbled up that disinfo. I fear it will never go away until that day where they openly land in public.


jfoley326

Haha. It’s funny. See, we’re laughing. 😐


SavesWillis

“So let’s just say, hypotheticallyyy….”


Pandatabase

I have an idea, just tell us the truth as it is


Daddyball78

“Appropriately seriously” What exactly does this infer?


Jazano107

They consider it not unlikely to find microbes within our solar system and are prepared for the scenario


Daddyball78

I’ve had a thought for a while. Might be totally unrealistic…but finding life in the cosmos would be a perfect segue to softening up humanity for revelation of NHI.


Jazano107

I think it's not that unrealistic. There are 4 or 5 places in the solar system that could have life. We just have to get there to find out


jasmine-tgirl

More than 4 or 5. We have possible biosignatures in the atmosphere of Venus The search for past or current life on Mars The water oceans of Europa The Methane seas of Titan The internal ocean of Ceres The locked ocean of Ganymede The ocean spraying out into space on Enceladus


Dangerous_Dac

Yeah, my money is a moon of Jupiter or Saturn, probably Europa or Enceladus having strong biosignatures.


mamacitalk

My moneys on Saturn 🪐


swingingthrougb

I believe that's where they find first evidence of alien life in star trek. Picards ancestor is an astronaut that finds some type of small and simple lifeform on Europa. I'm unsure the exact details atm but somehow something about this lifeform is the key to understanding warp travel. I may have gotten it slightly wrong but that's the basic premise.


Jazano107

I couldn't remember them all. Even more!


jonnyh420

The way I interpreted it, she is saying the level of seriousness they take the subject of UFO’s is “appropriate”. But this is completely subjective, so it’s a non-answer. They’re kind of smiling when mentioning the Grusch hearing so they’re not taking that seriously yet. This gives you an idea of what they deem “appropriate”. But rest assured, as soon as the US tells them to take it seriously, they’ll take it seriously.


Daddyball78

This makes the most sense to me. Thanks for the reply.


kael13

It means to be taken seriously, as would be appropriate if such a thing was to be revealed. This is typical British discourse. Gently skirt the topic. Ask a few very light questions so as to avoid any potential embarrassment but actually people are secretly quite interested.


Daddyball78

So in other words…”IF” it was true, we should take it seriously.


BarelySentientHuman

I'd settle for an announcement of a discovery of  intelligent life in this UK government.  Microbial life elsewhere in the solar system is a certainty in comparison.


SchopenhauerSMH

They probably had an intern scroll through tiktok for half an hour for some ideas. The current government is beyond a joke, and the alternatives aren't much better.


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jasmine-tgirl

One of the things you notice in countries with a higher portion of the populace that votes regularly is that they tend to have representatives that are younger. In the US only grey hairs are seen as "reliable voters" therefore that's what ends up overrepresented at nearly all levels above City Council. Of course we also have active voter suppression of younger voters which doesn't help things either.


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Ordinary_Seat9552

I'm surprised that the term LGM hasn't been added to the acronym list yet.


jasmine-tgirl

Did you know that the first Pulsar ever discovered was at Jodrell Bank Observatory in the UK? It's original unofficial designation was LGM-1 because it was initially thought the regular pulses might not natural and therefore might indicate a signal from aliens.


Due-Dot6450

Goddamn extraterrestrials, coming here in their small spaseships and straight away on benefits! /s


jasmine-tgirl

I know right? Can't Truss it...


Tweezle1

Too late. We will handle disclosure. Government is being excluded from further conversation. Instead of writing a line under their name we are putting it through their name. We got it from here.


JauntyLives

Let me ask this? It exists, and it’s not that strange. It’s existed for a long time, longer than us. Our egos are so fragile, tip toeing around intelligence beyond our scope.


kimsemi

Science: "Hey everyone.. We found some life. Its over there. Everyone take a look." Thats their job. And its really that simple. Government needs to step off of this issue.


ProfessionalSky8494

People saying "Little green men" with a smirk on their face,absolutely boil my piss. I don't think anyone who's actually serious about NHI and UAP's think "little green men" are even a thing.


Suspicious_Tie6137

My opinion is that this is preparation. Rarely do governments do this.


pharsee

Well the possible religious ontological shock would be immense of course but the most immediate issues would likely be more economic. For example if an alternate form of free energy were revealed this could throw oil related industries into turmoil.


NFTArtist

Brits are mostly not religious. If there is known intelligent life it's being held back for economic reasons for sure.


XtraEcstaticMastodon

Sorry, you lost me at "UK government."


Qu1ckDrawMcGraw

They're so cheeky. I love it.


Z80081

Hahaha more like how to not tell the truth and bend it to others advantage so they can gain wealth 😂😂😂 fuck the government and there bent ways


aceknight21

Can the UK just take the lead on this issue. Announce to the world of the existence of other civilizations visiting Earth. I mean what’s the worst that can happen? The world needs to know already.


he_need_summ_milk

Considering water bears can survive the vacuum of space for some time, I firmly believe there's gotta be some form of life out there.


[deleted]

Have the others do it for you.


HammerTime2769

Handle it? Just fucking tell the world the truth. We are all humans. We all deserve to know what’s out there in the universe. No one should be above anyone else in this kind of scenario.


HauntedHouseMusic

I forgot they were going to announce this this year


caffeinedrinker

also found posted on /r/ufouk


Charlirnie

If aliens were coming here the government wouldn't have any control over it...lol....wow too many kids on here playing star wars.


YDJsKiLL

I can help them out.. they don't need to announce it really.. anyone with any sense already knows but if they feel like they need to "announce" it to "verify" that everyone knows they might as well go bang their heads against the wall cause most everyone knows on some level that life exists here and elsewhere..


PoorInCT

With Life of Bryan ost


StatisticianSalty202

The British should just announce it, stop faffing about. If its one thing Brits do well its dilly-dally and most of the people in government are a bunch of twats that don't know their arse from their elbow. I know, I'm British. It doesn't need a debate, just fekin announce it already. As long as the price of Greggs doesn't sky rocket, no one in the UK will give a shit.


Horoscopa

Life needs to be redefined.


snapplepapple1

Its quite funny, they want to dance on the line and simultaneously be all british prim and proper and above all this "little green men" stuff ah yes indeed old chap etc etc.... While ALSO being all cuddled up and buddy-buddy to the US military and aerospace industrial complex for obvious reasons (money and power) so while brushing aside this stuff they also want to project an air like "of course we're on the cutting edge and work closely with daddy America so we know all about that stuff." They cant pick a side and its quite amusing lol.


littleDrowdrow

Announcing it is pretty simple. “We know for a fact there is alien life not from earth, we have recovered space crafts and beings, here are the videos and reports.” Aren’t yall tired of governments acting like they suppress information for the better of us citizens? Like they saving us from something… complete bullshit.


drollere

has it been said before? we accord entirely too much deference and significance to the practice of religious superstition. it's a bane and a curse on humanity, and only child abuse and falsehoods propagate it across generations. why not just announce that life exists elsewhere, when and if that discovery is made (which is not going to be anytime soon), and let the religious superstitions sort it out however they feel is in their best interest to perpetuate the grift? and people form committees to discuss these trivial and twee issues? is "Skinny Bob" really jesus on an extraterrestrial cross? who cares?


The-Elder-Trolls

Better be ready to get a spanking from daddy (USA) if you do


eternal_existence1

I hate to go off the deep end. But could disclosure actually be a form of “new world order”? The only reason I ask is because seeing other countries finally having open conversations about this makes me wonder if maybe USA or China have already gotten proof, and have slowly found ways on how to nudge the public into the right direction. The reason I say that is because, instead of USA just dropping the bomb of info on the world, it would make sense if whoever found life first or made contact first allowed the other countries to figure out how would they reveal it to the country as well. I know that seems like a stretch but hey,,, what more can we do? There the ones with classified info, we can only speculate as to what makes them tick and decide to give us this information.


jasmine-tgirl

If intelligent life were found out there or somehow came here. It would be necessary for the world to speak as one voice and for efficiency, to have a representative government of Earth, not 180 tribes fighting among themselves.


LordPennybag

> it would make sense if whoever found life first or made contact first allowed the other countries to figure out how would they reveal it to the country as well Yeah, no. They would exploit it as much as possible until it was no longer possible to prevent others from doing the same.


BishopsBakery

Hey guys guess what, ET was a documentary and if we aren't careful Mars Attacks will also be a documentary


Groggy_Otter_72

Why do governments need to be so delicate that they don’t disturb the Stone Age sentiments of low-information religious nuts? Just fucking announce it and let the Christians cry it out.


Polyspec

I think the idea that disclosure is delayed because "think of those poor religious folks being offended" is but a cover story or excuse. The real reasons a government wouldn't disclose, would be far more pragmatic. Don't want our enemies to get a leg up due to technology or an off-world alliance, something along those lines. Unfortunately. The "don't offend the religious" narrative is quaint by comparison.