• Question: I've heard that the technology we've got now the military had 50 years ago is this true?

    Asked by Jayaarrrr to Daniel, Freya, James, Miranda, Usman on 17 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Miranda Jackson

      Miranda Jackson answered on 17 Jun 2015:

      I think it is very unlikely that the military had technology such as cellular phones or GPS 50 years ago, because they would have needed satellites to transmit the signals, and there weren’t nearly enough satellites in orbit back then. Also, computers were just being invented around 50 years ago. The computers with a fraction of the computation power of even your tablet or phone would have filled an entire room. If the military had such devices, they would have used them, and we would have known about them a long time before now.

    • Photo: Usman Bashir

      Usman Bashir answered on 18 Jun 2015:

      I like Miranda’s reply. However, there is some truth to your point too. The army does own its own research facilities where top-secret technologies are developed before the rest of the world knows about them, just like any other industrial organization. The GPS was actually invented in early 90’s for the army, but on Clinton’s request, became available to civilians in 1996. Jeeps were also designed for the American army in WWII, but later became public. British soldiers were wearing cargo pants for 60 years before we starting wearing them in 90’s 🙂

      I’m sure there are plenty more examples of top secret activities, like nano-fabric being developed as light-weight bullet proof jacket by the military. Maybe public figures will later start wearing those. Who knows?

    • Photo: James Gilbert

      James Gilbert answered on 18 Jun 2015:

      That’s probably a bit of an exaggeration, but there’s some truth to it. I know a few optical engineers who were working on telescopes and satellites for scientific use, then the defence people came and offered them a job they couldn’t refuse. They’re not allowed to say what they work on now, but all they say is “it’s so cool”. I’d bet they’re making some serious spy satellites and cameras..

    • Photo: Freya Wilson

      Freya Wilson answered on 18 Jun 2015:

      This is an awesome question I think.

      It’s hard to say exactly. I definitely thing 50 years is an over exaggeration though. It is maybe more like 10 years ahead.

      There is a lot of money in defence and the military- it funds a lot of projects and advances science more than most other industries. The first ever computer was arguably the enigma machine which was used to decipher Nazi code in WW2. For this reason they tend to have access to technology long before it is released to the public. But not by as long as 50 years.

      The unhackable code that I am working on is funded by the defence industry- it is most likely to come out there first. But I suspect they already have things very similar that we don’t know about! So who knows?! I think the whole area is really really cool though and that’s where I want to end up working in the future!

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