# Cloak of Invisibility



## j d worthington (Oct 20, 2006)

This one leads to some interesting speculations:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061019/ap_on_sc/cloak_of_invisibility

One of the things I find interesting is the idea of "cloaking" in connection with seismic waves.... I'd like to hear more about that application, and how it would work. And, of course, I'd like to see the news on this coming from a more scientific source.... perhaps it will soon?

To me, as fascinating as this is, it's also more than a bit scary that it's coming about at this particular time, with the sort of attitudes our administration is showing so broadly, so perhaps this belongs as much in World Affairs as in Science. Anyone else want to comment on this one?


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## Saltheart (Oct 20, 2006)

The military will use it to slaughter people. Imagine soldiers and snipers of the future... terrible.


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## BookStop (Oct 20, 2006)

Yes, it's not always convenient in todays society to rely solely on the naked eye to see things, and this could definitely cause some major problems.


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## carrie221 (Oct 21, 2006)

Imagine secret hideaways...


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## Jilliboo (Oct 22, 2006)

This peculiar invention has more negative consequences than benefits. If you block anything from detection, it will backfire. As long as it isn't made available to the public in any way, I'll sleep easier.


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## Azathoth (Oct 22, 2006)

Pretty neat. Not too concerned, though. In the face of the technological horrors of the 20th century (nuclear bombs, a scientific approach to genocide, airplanes which can drop enough explosives to level cities and kill countless people, machineguns - I believe that machinegun has claimed more lives than any other weapon in the past century - and so forth) a cloaking device seems rather minor. Perhaps it could be used to hide troops, or to hide the bodies of massacred people, or whatever...but compared to some other things which have emerged from factories and laboratories in the past hundred years...I'm not sweatin' it.

And I agree, Jilliboo - it is something that should stay out of the public's hands.  I can only imagine what people might do if they believed themselves to be completely "invisible."


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## j d worthington (Oct 22, 2006)

Aside from its use as weapon or defense... any thoughts on the cloaking device in connection to seismic waves, as mentioned in the article? What sort of benefits and/or problems does anyone see there? I'd be curious to hear some speculation on that, if anyone has any... and for the aspiring writers, it may help spark some story ideas.


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## The Pelagic Argosy (Oct 23, 2006)

Well, I read about this in Discover, and that article said they really can't make an object invisible to the eye.  They have only managed to make an object invisible to microwaves.  The metamaterials are covered in these little grooved patterns, and the microwaves - which are comparitively large waves - follow the grooves and are bent around the object rather than striking and reflecting off the object.  

In order to make the object invisible to light waves, which are much smaller than microwaves, they need much smaller grooves.  There are currently no methods for making the grooves small enough to do that.  

I got the impression that making objects truly invisible to the eye with this method is merely theoretical at this point.  So I'm not worried.


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## Dave (Jan 26, 2012)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16726609

JDs earlier link no longer works, but it doesn't seem like they are much further forward - it is still only possible with microwaves and not with the visible light spectrum.

Also, if it only works in certain parts of the EM spectrum I can't see it having much of a military use:

The Starship Enterprise is approaching the Klingon Cruiser Kathless. "They're cloaked, Capt'in," says Scotty. "Try Infra-Red," says Kirk. "Och Aye, I see them now Cap'tin!"


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## Karn Maeshalanadae (Jan 26, 2012)

Actually, this sort of thing is actually old spits. A while ago I saw an episode of Nova where they were tinkering with invisibility, all sorts of possibilities came up, to certain kinds of reflection surfaces to I can't remember what. None of it seemed very practical, though, and to be honest, I'm not quite even sure if it's possible to have full, light-bending invisibility. And when I say light-bending, I don't mean mere reflection, but wrapping.


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## Starbeast (Jan 26, 2012)

Saltheart said:


> The military will use it to slaughter people. Imagine soldiers and snipers of the future... terrible.


 
That was my first thought too.


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## Metryq (Jan 26, 2012)

Sensationalist hype. Every year or so another article comes out about an invisibility cloak. And as one reads the story, it turns out that researchers have managed to hide something so small it was invisible to the naked eye, anyway. I don't doubt that techniques will eventually surface to "cloak" macro-scale objects, or obscure them with some kind of dynamic camouflage. But the truth is, special ops types already know how to "turn invisible" and slide through keyholes without sci-fl cloaking devices. 

Many kinds of attacks do not require sending someone in with a gun. Just think of the havoc one could raise with a cyber attack on the power grid, telephones, etc. However, if one really must resort to assassination, the latest solutions involve the same tactic as the space program—remove the man from the equation and send in a machine that is much smaller and better outfitted for the job. By comparison, an invisibility cloak is a brute force, "World War II thinking" style attack.


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## Starbeast (Jan 26, 2012)

Metryq said:


> *Many kinds of attacks do not require sending someone in with a gun.* Just think of the havoc one could raise with a cyber attack on the power grid, telephones, etc. However, if one really must resort to assassination, the latest solutions involve the same tactic as the space program—remove the man from the equation and send in a machine that is much smaller and better outfitted for the job. By comparison, an invisibility cloak is a brute force, "World War II thinking" style attack.


 
I was thinking invisibility would be used on tanks or antipersonnel robots (basically a weapon on wheels).

Someone could just as easily make a remote controled car and put explosives in it, that would be cheaper than high-tech gizmos.


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