"Anti-Gravity" Propulsion Systems - II (Historical Stuff)
In the beginning of the 19th century, engineers began to apply the ideas of physics and thermodynamics to the construction of high quality artillery. This love-fest between the art of war and the world of physics soon grew to encompass flying machines and motor engines. By WWI - the marriage of physics and the war machine was going strong, and deadlier and more accurate weapons were being invented all the time. Like wayward children these inventions spread across the face of the earth and rapidly enhanced mankind's ability to extinguish itself.
WWII programs like the Manhattan Project and Hitler's Wunder Waffen (Rockets) were the most terrifying of the pack that this abominable pair has brought into the world. And the success of those efforts paved the way for more such horrors to come forth.
As the copulation of Physics and the War Machine was always a secretive act, an alternate information handling system emerged to keep track of when these two got it on. Buried deep within national bureaucracy and secure from external review, this technical underworld became a center of great power as it was able to seduce and guile many a leader with dreams of unimaginable power. It was able to get funding by promising things that were far beyond human ability to comprehend or deliver.
I feel the "anti-gravity" project is an example of this kind of thing.
I don't think everyone was all bad but the Nazis were the worst when it came to this. While SS Major Werner Von Braun was using inmates from nearby concentration camps to work on his V1 and V2 rockets, a certain SS Maj. Gen. Hans Kammler was allegedly headed up an anti-gravity program. When the Third Reich fell these bastards defected to the Allies via Op Paperclip and Op Osoaviakhim. Von Braun came to the US, I suspect so did Hans Kammler. And even if the US went to great lengths to make sure they didn't get up to their usual genocidal tricks, these people became a bad influence on the US for the decades to come. The Russians ofcourse had their own pet Nazis[1].
There were several public indications that the USG had an intense interest in anti-gravity research. But like research into various aspects of Uranium and Plutonium refining these open sources all dried up. It makes sense that the USG sought to hide this as after all there was a (Cold) War on ... if you didn't know. And the last thing they wanted was those Godless Commies getting their hands on it.
I feel the combination of the US fears of Communism and the influence of washed up Nazis created a unique climate in which a number of anti-gravity related IRAD (Independent Research and Development) activities were set up. I am hoping that Nick is able to shed light on some of those projects. I suspect most of these were scams - people promising performance way ahead of what was realistically knowable and I am certain these projects were administered by USG personnel with law degrees instead of science degrees. That always makes for a perfect scam.
One interesting window into that world came in the form of the "Gravity Research Foundation" which was set up by Roger Babson [2]. This entity initially attracted all the weird people that were trying to cash in on the "anti-gravity" scam. The number of crazies that hung out over there was a good gauge for the extent of the scam. Over the decades the real physicists who needed funding for publicly audited academic research took over and kicked out the crazies. Today this body helps those who do some of the most advanced academic research into gravity.
I have a very hard time believing stuff about Aliens. Given the age of the universe, I think it more likely that we are one of the first sentient species in this part of the galaxy.
I suspect that most of what we hear about Aliens at Area 51 is a security measure put around this "anti-gravity" research. That kind of security measure is common when it comes to protecting spy plane projects and so on, but I suspect it is also meant to deflect too many uncomfortable questions about the details from other sources as well for example:
Engineer: "How does the strong force couple to gravity at this energy scale?"
Manager : "We don't know but the Aliens told us that we can use element 115 to do this".
Engineer: "Oh that makes sense, I'll get back to sawing this log."
or
SAIC Auditor: "What is the line item on your project sheet labelled "Hookers, Blow and Expensive Booze in Vegas"?"
Manager :"Umm... that is for our other project, you know the one that is code word, the stuff on the lake bed near ..."
SAIC Auditor:"Aliens..."
Manager : "Yeah... that one"
SAIC Auditor: "No worries, I hear you, just doing my due diligence"
Okay maybe that is a bit too harsh and cynical, but that is just me, I have (some would say) an overly sensitive bullshit meter, and this Alien/"Anti-Gravity"-space time bending-intergalactic travelling stuff really sets that off.
If there are any actual Aliens and real scientists out there collaborating on helping mankind reach for the stars, my apologies to you.
I mean to cause you no offense, my skepticism is merely informed by decades of watching humanity bullshit itself off a cliff.
posted by maverick @ 9:36 AM
4 Comments:
I wouldn't put a lot in the USG anti gravity schtick.
richard feynmen who carried big mojo with the USG when he was alive, poo-pooed the whole idea. at least he did in a video I saw in one of his lectures. if you couldn't get feynman on your side, funding from the USG would get scarce very quickly.
feynman was one of the first people picked to review the nasa challenger disaster. like I said, big mojo.
according to the daily mail.uk AMERICANS are being used to arrest, interrogate and torture the saudi princes as ordered by MBS. giggle.
nobody has seen them or has videos of them but rest assured it is Black Water Americans at work.
and, uh, minor nitpick.....black water hasn't been called black water for years now. its called something else. russia seems to love that name though, grin.
black water is now called academi since 2010. called xe before that.
Dear Ralphy,
As a professional, I never say "never".
We understand very little about gravity and there is a lot more to be learned about it. Specifically we really don't know what gravity does at the sub-nuclear size scale where the protons and neutrons hand out. They may have very tiny rest masses but but given how close they are how fast they are moving relative to each other, there is very little we can say about the gravitational interaction between them. It is not clear what gravity means at the debroglie lengthscale. These are open questions, if someone wants to answer them - even in the USG - more power to them. If they want to pay me to work on this in some secret bunker in the middle of the Nevada desert, that is fine to.
WRT - the aliens at S4 idea, it is the *aliens* part that I choke on. Combining the Fermi paradox, the Drake equation and the idea of evolution leads to a very unexpected answer. They are NOT "Aliens" - but terrans who left the surface, i.e. species that dominated the planet before humans and chose for whatever reasons (most likely environmental/space weather related) to leave the surface. Any species that lived on earth and survived grand filters would have technology beyond current human capacity. This way of thinking about it would go a long way in explaining the desire for contact on their side, it would be similar to us making contact with long lost tribes in the Amazon or some island in the Andamans.
Naturally all this talk of "reverse engineering crashed flying saucers" is bullshit at some level because the craft would be handed over to humans as a learning tool. A lure to bring humanity to a higher level of mental evolution.
Once you think of it like that, you care less and less about where the craft actually come from or whether ETs actually exist. The only thing that matters is the idea that humanity collectively evolves in the right direction. A direction that promotes a deeper understanding of the physical principles that govern reality.
It is natural consequence of such an evolution that the quality of life for all would improve and we would respect our environment more.
Again - from a purely professional perspective - I lament our addiction to an outdated fuel technology which pollutes the environment and causes so much harm to humanity. The carbon based energy has become a grand filter in it of itself. I welcome any myths that steer us away from this doom.
Imagine how much better life would be if we could find a way to heat our homes without any of the attendant carbon costs? A world where we didn't need to deal with KSA or Iran or Russia's bullshit or brutally fuck - I mean - frack the very land we live on.
Such a world exists. If "ETs at Area 51/S4" is the cover of bullshit one needs to put out to get the congenitally stupid people of our country to migrate to that level, then so be it.
I support it.
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