Sep 29 2011
Elements of Superhero Stories That Might Be Surprisingly Plausible
SCIENCE/MEDICINE
1. Invisible jets will probably be feasible within 50 years. We already have rudimentary cloaking devices and one researcher suggests that it could eventually be used on submarines. (I wonder if anyone would bother applying this technology to a jet, though. Isn’t the ability to see jets irrelevant if the battle is resolved from miles away?)
2. An Iron Man-style powersuit might be viable someday. We already have rudimentary jet packs, military grade lasers, exoskeletons and a five-pound rocket launcher. I’m not a scientist, but it strikes me as fairly likely that engineers could figure out how to refine and combine those elements. Then a few questions remain (how to power it, how to stop concussive forces from killing the pilot, and why you’d bother spending all that money on a shell for a human when you could do more with a remotely-operated suit or a robot).
3. Technopathy might be theoretically possible. According to Scientific American, “Signals channeled directly from the brain can already control computers and other machines.” From there, I think it’s relatively easy to suspend disbelief that someone might be so capable at doing it that he can hack into machines with his mind.
