Our government spends trillions of dollars in taxpayer money each year developing new technologies. Some of those technologies are very visible, and provide recognizable benefits to society. A good example of this is the space
program.
NASA’s research has provided us with all sorts of usable technology over the years.
The Internet itself is a result of government technology research. It originally consisted of defense networks.
Yet, there are some technologies that the government has developed that don’t receive nearly as much press. It’s not so much that this research is being covered up; it’s that the government agencies just don’t go around promoting the technologies they are working on.
Here are a few of the technologies the government may not want you to know about:
1. GPS-connected satellite imagery.
You’ve all heard how the government can use satellites to read the license plate from a car. However, there’s a catch to this: someone has to know what car to look at, and then have access to two separate satellites to make it happen. Today, researchers are combining GPS technology with satellite imagery. This allows a government agency with the proper access to satellite imagery to track something – usually a vehicle, often with something highly valuable or highly secure inside of it – and automatically track that vehicle based on its GPS location.
Now, while the conspiracy theorists will suggest that this sounds like a “big brother” state who’s watching everyone, the reality is a little bit less practical than that. At any given time, there is only enough satellite imagery equipment to track two or perhaps three GPS signals at any given time. The bottleneck, of course, is the number and availability of imaging satellites currently in space over the United States. This kind of surveillance would be nearly impossible to do on a massive scale, if only for budgetary reasons.
2. Unmanned weapons delivery systems (drones).
Over the past couple of years, a great deal of information has come to light about how the United States conducts its wars. One of the major points of discussion has been the use of drones and their use for surveillance.
Drones are, essentially, unmanned vehicles (usually aircraft) that are operated by the military and/or other governmental agencies.
A very vocal point of contention has been how these drones are being used domestically. Americans don’t really like the idea that the government is constantly collecting intelligence about its own people.
However, less-known is the use of drones that actually deliver a weapons payload. Since 2008, approximately 254 drone attacks took place in Pakistan, to say nothing of drone attacks in other countries where we have an actual military presence. These weaponized drones are being talked about overseas, but so far little attention has been paid domestically.
3. Non-Nuclear EMP.
An electromagnetic pulse has the potential to create a rapidly-changing electric and magnetic fields. These fields cause damaging currents and voltage surges to electrical and electronic systems. What this means is that, when an EMP occurs, a great deal of the tools we use to live, work, and breathe every day could be shut down – potentially forever.
The original EMP studies came about as a secondary effect from a nuclear explosion. Any nuclear explosion has the potential to create an EMP. However, today the government has been developing non-nuclear EMP technology. These devices would allow them to create an EMP without having to detonate a nuclear bomb.
The potential for this kind of a weapon is great when used against an enemy. Besides, producing an EMP using current research would likely be easier and more accessible than, for example, producing a nuclear bomb. That means terrorists or foreign powers could quite literally flip the switch on our electrical grid with a single attack.
Fortunately, the government has also developed a number of EMP attack scenarios, and has also designed appropriate responses that would minimize the damage from receiving an attack.
The government and governmental contractors blow through significant piles of cash each year. In some cases, their results wind up improving our lives. We hear a lot about those, of course. In other cases, the research and use of technologies such as the GPS-connected satellite imagery, drones, and non-nuclear EMP, raise legitimate concerns about the direction we’re headed as a society.
About the Author
Nick Simpson is Social Media Coordinator at Kontron, a leading designer of the EN50155 certified panel as well as the flexible advanced mezzanine card. Kontron caters to a number of industries including the energy, military and medical industries.
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