Universal Thinker

It seems that the primary source of funding in this endeavor is none other than the Pentagon itself. There is no doubt that there is a definate use for invisible shielding or a cloaking device to create actual (and not just radar) stealth vehicles for use in instruments of war.

The technology that allows for invisibility is known as metamaterials. A metamaterial (or meta material) is a material which gains its properties from its structure rather than directly from its composition. To distinguish metamaterials from other composite materials, the metamaterial label is usually used for a material which has unusual properties.

The property that allows for invisibility in a particular spectrum of light is the negative refractive index. In layman’s terms, this allows a ray of light to be refracted around, for instance, a cylidrical object in such a way that the light bypasses the object entirely thus rendering it invisibile in that particular spectrum of visible light.

This brings to light (absolutely no pun intended) an interesting situation if this were to be engineered to work for all visibile light. Whoever is enclosed by the object, would be in complete darkness due to the fact that all light is bent around the object. How would one see anything? You would still have to have some aspect of the cylinder allowing light to pass through, therefore the object would not be totally invisible, but would have some minute measure of visibility.

If invisibility becomes a possible impossiblity - what type of social ramifications would there be? As Plato wrote in the Republic about the ring of Gyges:

“No man would keep his hands off what was not his own when he could safely take what he liked out of the market, or go into houses and lie with any one at his pleasure, or kill or release from prison whom he would, and in all respects be like a god among men.”

For a man or Government to have this type of power is a dangerous situation indeed.