Image 1: A man wearing a suit and hat is invisible. Image courtesy of Flickr.
A Review of Invisibility: The History and Science of How Not to Be Seen
For most of us, invisibility sounds like a magical superpower. Imagine it: you could completely let yourself loose at a party at no risk of finding yourself in some Instagram story, sneak into any restricted space and gain insights into what is discussed inside private political meetings, or catch your partner cheating. The recently published book Invisibility: The History and Science of How Not to Be Seen by Gregory Gbur digs into fictional yet theoretically realistic depictions of invisibility and its evolution over the years.
Gbur analyzes many stories about invisibility from writers such as Plato to Fitz James O’Brien and finds that invisibility often results in suffering for the invisible characters or those around them. While most of these stories share a somewhat grim view, they make the valid point that humans, when freed of accountability, tend to indulge their more malevolent and selfish desires to others’ detriment—including their own. He even uses these stories, and the logic behind them, to speculate that invisibility would be hazardous technology to grant to the world as we know it.
Undoubtedly the most prominent application of invisibility is espionage and surveillance: governments and corporations equipped with complete invisibility wouldn’t be able to resist infiltrating private spaces and maximizing their clandestine operations within national and international spheres. Criminals with access to invisibility technology could evade detection and capture by the police while pursuing their malicious goals. Conversely, though, invisibility could be used to more benevolent ends. People could turn invisible to escape dangerous situations and protect themselves. Theater performances could use strategic placement and timing of invisibility to revolutionize prop management and costume changes. Social organizations could maximize inclusivity because, frankly, it would be difficult to keep people out of a space if you could not even see them. With all of these considerations, could invisibility technology be in our future?
Practically speaking, achieving optical invisibility is very unlikely. However, other forms of invisibility could be developed. Scientists from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China and Hunan Normal University have conceptualized imperfect forms of invisibility through methods such as thermal cloaking, where heat from a body or machine is redirected so that it is invisible to thermal sensors. A team of researchers led by English theoretical physicist John Pendry also created cloaks that guide certain wavelengths of light and energy around an object to hide it within those spectra: think UV invisibility. Additionally, scientists could create a matrix in the ground around a city that reflects or interferes with seismic waves, essentially making it invisible and impervious to earthquakes.
Gbur’s book illustrates the unexpected ways technology can be utilized for better or for worse and shows how much real science can be inspired by science fiction.