Materializing the Invisible: Moving Beyond the Fantasy World
As a society, we rely on parameters to function and to maintain the status quo. We emphasize understanding and accepting what should be and what should not, what is and what is not, what could be and what could not. We put limits on things and restrict possibilities because it makes us feel safe and helps us to dismiss that terrifying thing that we fear, and that paradoxically, we long for: the unknown. Or sometimes, the impossible. Despite that humans have been limiting our belief about what is possible for millennia - humans will never live to 100, man will never run the sub-4-minute mile - we have continued to prove ourselves wrong through technological innovation and physiological accomplishment. Powered by grit, drive, and mindset, humans have the capacity to make any ‘impossible’ possible.
So, what is the most impossible thing you can think of? Perhaps your mind goes to worlds of sci-fi and fantasy, to superpowers and magic. Let me ask you, if you could have one superpower what would it be?
If you said “Invisibility”, then you’re in luck. Once a sci-fi/fantasy dream, the power of invisibility has become a reality. Hyperstealth Biotechnology from Canada has been developing a ‘Broadband Invisibility Cloak’ that uses their patented “Quantum Stealth” material to make wearers seem invisible. The technology works by optic technology that bends surrounding light to make a target disappear. This kind of technology, or magic was for a long time thought to be impossible by most scientists (and most other muggles!). The application of the technology will be for military use, to hide tanks and personnel.
The Quantum Stealth material has three other applications as well, including as a very effective ‘Solar Panel Amplifier’, as a holographic-like ‘Display System’, and for Laser Scattering, Deviation & Manipulation, which is used in technology such as self-driving vehicles.
The invention of the Invisibility Cloak is both symbolically and practically significant. Firstly, it is a sign that magic is real, that all the things that we dream up or dream of from stories and fiction is possible. One of the sadder parts about growing up is that over time, we lose our ability to believe in the impossible, in magic, in Utopia, and we find it harder and harder to suspend disbelief. But a moment and an innovation like this, that proves to us that magic, while probably not exactly how we first pictured it when reading Harry Potter, can be real. And rather than dismiss things like magic as impossible, we can instead see how we can make those things we wish for come true. And so, secondly, in a more practical sense that is still very personal to me, an impossible to possible situation such as this, makes me believe in that green Utopia. No, it probably won’t be magical and mystical like I’m inclined to imagine, but through science, through systematic thinking, through revolution, and powered by human grit, drive, and mindset, a greener future is possible.