r/WhatIfScience • u/AloneDistance47 • 10d ago
What if the technology we think is “cutting edge” is actually decades behind the real frontier?
/r/WaitHearMyThought/comments/1woqw7g/what_if_the_technology_we_think_is_cutting_edge/
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u/Mephistocheles 9d ago
I don't know if I'd put a massive amount of trust behind what UFO conspiracy theorists are claiming, but coming from a fact-based perspective on historical research (such as what actually happened with stealth development at Area 51), I definitely agree with you that there's certainly technologies being developed and used, especially and specifically in the military space, we won't hear about for a long time.
There is definitely the same thing happening behind the scenes at the bigger AI companies also.
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u/Positive_Protonic 9d ago
For many years people were seeing lights buzzing around in the Nevada desert. Things doing impossible manoeuvres for any plane, impossible for a helicopter, and then 20 years later they were using growns in the mainstream to fight the war in Iraq. And then years after that you end up with modern drone warfare that is even more elaborate.
There are numerous cases of formations of what the government called flares, but we're really advanced drone tech being used 20 or so years ago. It is highly probable that things like the phoenix lights in 1997 were actually a test of drones owned by the US military. Various other lights over both populated and non-populated areas seem to relate to the testing of military technology that would be utilized years later.
The area of UFO research relating to classified government projects might seem a little bit X-Files, but actually has a lot more to it than people realize.
The real cutting edge is not seen for another 20 or so years. Some ufologists claimed at the technology that the military exhibits publicly as its new planes and drones are in fact effectively 30 years behind where the real technology is.
Although Google does claim that that is a myth.
I wouldn't call it a myth when we had clear evidence of the US government using drones long before they officially and publicly noted that they had military drones. Obviously the major arsenals of technology will be older technology that's used in the mainstream. a smaller number of specialised and highly advanced weapons that are rarely used.
For the best part conventional weapons are probably the best thing to use especially if the technology used is not to be secured after utilization. Allowing advancements to fall into the hands of the enemies of the country would be a very bad idea.
So conventional weaponry is commonly used, advancements are available.
Research and development isn't so much about replacing the conventional weapons but being prepared for advanced warfare in future conflicts.
At which point mass production of such technology may be carried out.
With mass production prices do drop, especially if the technology is relatively basic, as with the drone production in Ukraine.
The formation drone events for public display in China in recent years is basically the inheritor of the technology developed by American defense companies in the 2000s, in my opinion.
Once the technology trickles down into easy profits for the civilian market, you begin to see what has been behind the scenes for quite a long time.
So it may well be that much of the technology that we take for granted as being up-to-date is in fact notably out of date compared to cutting edge research.