Personal Invisibility Technology and the Law

Alright, I was watching TV earlier, and in one of the preview things for a show they
were talking about invisibility in the next episode, and it got me thinking.

In the future we will see invisibility technology come into being be that through
micro adaptive optics technology or light bending meta-materials, and eventually
they will become cheap enough for more than just the military to afford them.

So here's my question, should they be legal on a personal device level?
I ask this
both for the public sector and the military/government.



Personally I think they should be illegal for the public and highly regulated for government
and military use, that is only the military can use them, and than only in foreign
and/or hostile countries/war zones.

I think they should be used for Police, Military and CIA type work. Doing something productive. Instead of bugging and room an officer can be right in the room.

But the public should have no access to it, and should be illegal for the public. Only negative things would happen if the public was able to purchase it. People would rob banks, steal, vandalize, maybe even murder. And hey! They're invisible and get away...

Because what else else would people do? Walk invisibly from the couch to the refrigerator?

Wow, I must just be more innocent.
The first things I thought that people would use this for is males sneaking into womens
locker rooms, or males locker rooms, depending on the orientation.

I believe they should be completely illegal in the first place, since such a device is highly immoral. That being said, if we are assuming that there is nothing to stop them form being manufactured, they should only be legal if the equipment/products exist to detect anyone within the vicinity who is under cover from such an invisibility device.

Preferably, I believe before these devices become legal, detection equipment that meets the approrpiate standards to detect ANY and ALL forms of invidsibiltiy products must mandatorily be place on ALL new private, and public housing, business structures. The detection devices also should be immeditley equipped on EVERY school public or private, hospitals, government buildings, daycares, and city service buildings 100% subsidized.

There should be a program to help small businesses and low income homeowners to assist in funding to equip their structures with the detection equipment for their safety. All apartment complexes must eat the cost of the upgrade themselves or face heavy fines, and eventual siezure of their assets for non-compliance resulting in a safety hazard for the citizens in the complex.

Anywhere where there are numbers of children, social services, law services, or infrastructure services need to be protected to detect within a respectable range if their is an invisible presence in the vicinity, so that the authorities can sieze upon and question the motives of the individual in the area.

I think my main thing is, unless your hunting, or conducting a military mission in a warzone, noone has ANY reason whatsoever to be wandering around your community invisible.

for every stealth or cloaking or invisibility technology developed....
there will be counter measures already in place.

the Invisible Man thing is 19th century fantasy...
along with all the clothing, protection, etc a 'Agent' embarking on a
Invisible assignment would need...Our most advanced technologies
would not be able to provide.

look up (NYSE: TRMB), i've been tracking this company for awhile now,
they have the ability to track people inside buildings and tunnels/bunkers...
so one might think they're 'invisible'-undetected...

but that isn't sane thinking


i offer this in the spirit of Loyal Opposition.
as opposed to an antagonistic vein of thought....

Peace

reply to post by iori_komei


I think by that stage we will become more spiritually orientated and have surpassed the need for technology.

reply to post by iori_komei


Maybe it would be handled appropriately by peer pressure, and also partially downgraded for public use.

Example: You wouldn't dress up like a Ninja and jump out at people with a black mask on around public walkways. Why? Might get arrested, etc.

In the same way, it would be found not socially acceptable to be wearing 'concealment technology' in public; and it would be dangerous (remember the X-Files episode with the Genii?).

But perhaps bird watchers would like to use it? Thus you may be able to get certain types of the technology, but it may only partially diminish your outline, and make you less visible to birds. IOW not as robust as military or LEO grade technology.

OK, that's kind of a goofy answer, but I tried.

Bear in mind that like any technology, there will be counter-measures. So maybe people would take to wearing special sun-glasses so that they could see 'through' the current stealth suits. (like the duel between police radar and radar detectors).

Finally, you wouldn't really be able to hide in the same room as bad guys. You'd still make noise, and you'd still be detectable by, say a bloodhound. So the bad guys would all have bloodhounds in their employ. (sounds like a bad episode of Star Trek, huh?)

Best I can do at the moment.

[edit on 30-8-2007 by Badge01]

I think the mandatory equipping of all structures with invisibility detection would help a great deal. After all, if you are watching birds in a nice forest or park, then you arent aroudn any important structures, or any at all, thus allowing you to remain invisible.

Yeah, but if they allowed 'complete invisibility' and you were camping out and happened to stumble into someone engrossed in bird watching, wouldn't you find that distracting?

Getting everyone special sun-glasses would surely be expensive, though, I suppose.



Maybe they'll discover how to make a wearable 'personal force-field' like Sue in the Fantastic Four, at the same time. That way, hit by a truck while invisible? No problem...except your insurance goes up from damaging the truck.



[edit on 30-8-2007 by Badge01]

The guy hit by the truck died in the X files. the dead dont pay insurance.
just teaseing