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March 13th, 2008
Why Don’t We Invent It Tomorrow?
Abstract:
FORCE FIELDS
"The force fields you see in science fiction seem so natural and obvious, you think, Why don't we invent one tomorrow? They actually violate many of the laws of electricity and magnetism worked out by Maxwell 140 years ago. Force fields do not fit any of the categories. So the force field that I envision would have to be a blend of several technologies: one is the plasma window that already exists in prototype form. If you were to reinforce it with lasers and nanotechnology, you would have a pretty potent invisible shield. For example, I could have a crisscross pattern of laser light, and an object going through this pattern will of course be incinerated. And even beyond that, a web of nanotechnology. So the combination of the three: the plasma window to give tremendous heat, the laser lattice, and the nano-spider-web, that could conceivably repel most objects. It might take a few decades to perfect this, but there's no law of physics preventing this from happening. But remember, ‘Star Trek' takes place in the 23rd century, as I recall. So that's still plenty of time to get the bugs out of this."
Source:
blogs.nytimes.com
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