Navaho Gunleg

Yesterday and today, a lot of talk about two independent groups of researchers having published a new theories on the possibilities of invisibility.

Really, I don’t see anything ‘new’ about this at all — the general concept anyways. Anybody that has ever theorised the possibilities of invisibility must’ve thought about this too (not specifically using some material, but rather using lots of energy for instance).

Nice that these guys have, once again, brought the thing up, together with new theories as to how this could be accomplished in practice, and even give the long-sought-after material a name. But I have yet to see (or not see, really), a proof-of-concept.

And even if total invisibility is possible — what kind of practical use would this have?

Civilian use? I don’t know, I can’t think of anything useful really, other than that one could hide large buildings. Which brings me to the question, who would want to live in something having artificial light shining on you all day? Ah, of course — prisons.

And millitairy use? I doubt it. Although a technique like this could hide mobile rocket-launchers and other types of installations — how can you communicate with these if radio-waves are retracted around it? A wired connection would also give the location away in some way or another.

And thinking of airplanes, how can one hide the trails of condensing water, how can they hide the heat-signature of the exhaust? Anything that moves through matter, affects the surrounding matter, so there will always be something to detect these ‘invisible’ objects.

So in the end, technologies like radar will become obsolete and the army invents something more refined.

I’m not saying that it wouldn’t be a pretty impressive accomplishment if someone did achieve to make something disappear, to the naked eye, but still — I really don’t see how hiding shit would make this world a better place.

Let those researches concentrate on time-travel, so I can go back to before man started messing things up.

Invisibility, Cloaking, Science