What If You Could Make Yourself Invisible?
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00:00 Invisibility is no longer just a topic of fantasy or science fiction.
00:10 Several companies around the world have developed technologies to make it a reality.
00:16 Some use a combination of cameras and digital screens to hide stationary objects,
00:21 while others offer a more sophisticated, invisibility cloak-type approach.
00:26 But which one works best?
00:28 How does it harness the power of our brains?
00:31 And what would our world do with this powerful ability?
00:36 This is WHAT IF, and here's what would happen if you could make yourself invisible.
00:43 Once perfected, invisibility technology will first be used for military applications,
00:48 but what will happen when it finally makes its way to the public?
00:52 Well, you'd never be 100% sure you weren't being watched or followed
00:56 unless you had an invisibility cloak of your own,
00:59 in which case you could probably do just about anything you wanted without being detected.
01:05 What would happen to the moral fabric of society
01:08 if people were able to act on their impulses without consequences?
01:12 The desire to be invisible has been a staple of Western culture for millennia,
01:17 from Plato's Republic right up to modern science fiction.
01:21 But what does this desire to become invisible say about us as a species?
01:26 What is it about invisibility that we're all so eager to take advantage of?
01:32 Well, before we go down that rabbit hole,
01:34 let's take a look at how we can make it a reality after all these years.
01:39 In order to understand what could make an object invisible,
01:42 we need to first wrap our heads around what made it visible in the first place.
01:46 When you see an object,
01:48 what you're really seeing is your brain's interpretation of the light that bounces off of it.
01:53 So in order to make something invisible, all you have to do is disrupt that process.
01:59 One of the most promising methods of doing so involves something called metamaterials,
02:04 which are human-made materials that can affect light in ways natural materials can't.
02:09 If you were to wrap an object in these materials,
02:11 they could capture light coming in from one direction and bend it around the object,
02:16 giving the appearance that it isn't there at all.
02:19 Right now, this technology has only been tested on tiny objects,
02:22 but one company, Hyperstealth, claims to have expanded that to full-on military uniforms
02:28 that not only remove your visual and thermal signatures, but also your shadow.
02:33 If these claims are true, and invisibility is right around the corner,
02:37 what would you do with it?
02:40 It's funny, there are so many opportunities to help the world with this ability.
02:45 You could become a superhero of sorts, gaining an upper hand on criminals.
02:50 Or you could sneak into closed quarters to reveal the secrets of corrupt governments and corporations.
02:56 But those aren't the first thoughts that come to the minds of most people
02:59 when presented with the prospect of invisibility.
03:02 Instead, most people think of unethical things like scaring people,
03:06 spying on their crush, or stealing things.
03:10 In fact, all you have to do is look at the anonymity of the Internet
03:14 to get an idea of how people would behave if they weren't held responsible for their actions.
03:20 Maybe it's a good thing that human invisibility is still a distant prospect,
03:25 since being recognized might be the only thing keeping us in line.
03:30 But that's a topic for another WHAT IF.
03:34 [music]