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The first doesn't seem plausible for the reason I gave. The second occurred to me. But how stupid do they think the Chinese are? If the top Chinese military res
by wbhart 7y ago
The first doesn't seem plausible for the reason I gave. The second occurred to me. But how stupid do they think the Chinese are? If the top Chinese military researchers really have such a poor grasp of physics, then their research efforts present no difficulties for the security of the US.
The only serious explanation I can come up with is that buried in this application is some element of the design which is feasible and which they do want to protect. But even that seems unlikely, given that they could have just made it secret.
Another less likely explanation is that someone in the navy is playing a prank on the public and the patent office. If the person who submitted the application doesn't actually exist, the navy might have trouble tracking down the perpetrator of the hoax.
One final possibility is that it is a recruiting tool. Perhaps by making this public they get a bunch of correspondence from talented individuals who capably point out that is nonsense, or that are capable of doing experiments that demonstrate parts of the patent to be nonfeasible.
- empath75 7y agoPossibly also they do have some real advanced program that actually is working and they want a smokescreen up to explain it. Maybe some new stealth craft or propulsion or guidance system that is a normal leap forward. Maybe a drone with especially advanced ai guidance systems that allows for more maneuverability. Something the Chinese could copy if they knew how it worked. Or the reverse — that we have discovered some system the Chinese created and are trying to copy it and want them to think we have gotten it wrong.
- wbhart 7y agoThe first seems quite reasonable. The very public smokescreen would be to control the narrative. Every time someone reported seeing such a thing, the public could be told it is probably just the US working on UFO technology. Certainly I believe the average person without a science degree will not see just how impossible this patent is. What's really odd is the reply of the patent examiner. It's almost like they are asking, "so just to make sure I understand you, this is quite impossible, right?". The military replied, "yeah of course it is, it would require more energy than could be produced by all the power stations on earth, even if the physics were sound. If it makes you feel better, we could add that we are doing this on battery power".
- krapp 7y agoThe general public doesn't seem concerned enough to need a smokescreen, and I wouldn't necessarily consider this "very public." Most people either already believe it's nonsense, or probably secret classified terrestrial craft, or aliens regardless of the official position. The military could probably get away with simply ignoring any rumors and sightings and letting them disappear into the noise of pop culture.
- samstave 7y agoDoes anyone recall the missing hard drives from LLL or los alamos, which were grabbed by the chinese spy? Or the theft of an AWAX by the chinese? They are not stupid. When i was at lockheed the chinese were phishing lockheed staff who had attended defense conferences. They managed to get a worm in lockheed that trickle fed them stolen data. When it was discovered they opened the flood gates and tried to dump mass data out of the lockheed network - which, at the time, only had three egress points to the internet such that lockheed had to shit them down. Then, lockheed tried to keep an air-gap between vendors they were using... but the chinese hacked the vendors such that they coulld compromise the usb drives being used as the sneakerbet between lockheed and the vendors.... The chinese are not stupid.
- ncmncm 7y agoYou could argue that there are more stupid Chinese than stupid Americans, but only on the basis that there are way more Chinese than Americans. The real question is whether they have stupid people making important decisions for them. Or, more stupid than the US has. At least we can be sure that they don't elect them to do it.
- empath75 7y agoStupidity is not always evenly distributed. Both the Russians and Americans threw away money on paranormal research, for example, largely because they thought the other side was doing it.