Invisibility Cloak...Miraculous Invention or Evil Unleashed?

What is one of the most fantastically magical things that Harry Potter owns? The one that gave him a totally unfair, yet mondo-fabulous advantage over his enemies........the 'Invisibility Cloak'!! Who, among mortal man, has not been completely seduced by the idea of being able to be invisible? From the Invisible Man to Star Trek to Harry Potter and the Stealth Bomber....we've been entertained and taunted with the unfathomable concept of being invisible for a long time. But it's looking like that dream is virtually a reality now, thanks to a new material called 'metamaterials' that reflect light 'around' an object, thereby making it invisible to the eye.

The technology is here and they are hatching up all sortss of ways to utilize it. One use would be human implanted metamaterial like silk that the body wouldn't reject. It could be used for things such as disposable lenses and implanted glucose testing chips. The chip would register the body's glucose levels and send the reading directly to your cell phone, thereby eliminating the dreaded needle prick. Can't you just picture it..."ring, ring, "Hello". "Hi Bob, this is your implant calling, just wanted to let you know that everything looks good in here today, so have fun out there!" Or it can be used to shield an organ in the forefront, rendering it invisible, so that other harder to view organs behind it are more easily observed.

Those seem like noble enough causes, but what else is being proposed? Of course any respectable Dungeons & Dragons or Harry Potter fan will be hoping for a much coveted Invisibility Cloak, and that could be a serious possibility in the not too distant future. But a more aggressive, and to me disconcerting use, is to make invisible weapons such as tanks and submarines, which are already being worked on. Remember the Stealth Bomber? Now we're making stealth tanks and subs. This almost seems like an unfair advantage....but I guess that's why they say "all is fair in love and WAR"?!
Wow! The prospect of a real life Invisibility Cloak....can you imagine how cool that would be? Just think about what you could do with a gem like that? In fact, given just a little thought, you begin to realize the vast amount of uses for such an item, and a hefty portion of them are rather disturbing actually. If you're a 'Nosy Parker' for instance....fret no more, now you can just slip in and out of any room and ease drop on spouse, kids, friends, employees and neighbors. It would also be a big hit with the 'Peeping Toms' for obviously lewd reasons. It would help render 'Bad Hair Days' obsolete and allow 'Nudists' to practice their lifestyle choice anywhere they choose. You could always be a 'VIP' at the night clubs, and have a 'Back Stage Pass' to any concert you desire right? I mean who could really stop you when they'd never even know you were there!

But what of the cloak in the hands of those who are far more sinister in their intentions? Governments could monitor everything you do, even inside your own home, without you even knowing. Thieves, Rapists and Murderers could potentially hide out anywhere unseen....and wreak havoc on society. How paranoid would you become with the knowledge that wherever you are, there could well be someone standing nearby, watching you from beneath their Invisibility Cloak? This invention could prove to be the death knell of any shred of privacy as we now know it. Eeegads! Anyone could become a sitting duck for various forms of attack, unless they too were invisible. So then what....do we all go under cover of our Invisibility Cloaks to protect ourselves? And does that render fashion obsolete? Imagine the streets looking apparently empty, when in fact, there are multitudes of invisible people tooling around....ha! How could you ever meet a mate if you can't even see them? Gadzooks...it's mind boggling! Have these inventors really thought this thing all the way out????

My mind went full circle on this one....from elation of something so cool, to fear and loathing of what something like this could mean for society. And like all scientific discoveries good and bad....once Pandora's Box is opened, there is no going back. You can read more about it here and here. So what are your thoughts on the invention of an Invisibility Cloak....greatest invention ever, or evil unleashed?
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