Fascinating. Who knows where this could lead?

Yoda: Strongly does the Force run through this one. Hmmm. ;)

Seriously, I do know about plasma science. A plasma arc reactor was the key intellectual property to my former biofuels company. From the little I read, the concept makes sense.

This was undoubtedly highly classified until recently.

Even Rand did not predict this.

She speculated on a screen designed to create the illusion of an inhospitable place, to hide the thriving community.

This does something else: it stops bombardment and incursion, does it not?

Well the left hand probably doesn't know the great things you are doing either ;^)

Interesting stuff. I work at Boeing and this is the first I have heard of this.

Another reason the world really needs Atlantis desperately.

db's first engineering gig was "star wars" freespace laser communication systems-basically designed to take out unfriendly space launched stuff at McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing). I think he even was still working on that as a patent atty for Boeing. not sure. this is pretty interesting but completely different. probably will be used against us...

jbrenner knows more about this than most.

GEe, thanks :)

Too often made economically unviable by looter legislation designed to maintain the power status quo and suppress competition, or sometimes considered an issue of "national security" which trumps rational thinking.
However, some military breakthoughs occur only due to massive expenditures that no rational businessman would make, and the defense department does this with regularity. Products from that research are sometimes later declassified and with the proper backing they can become commercially viable. This often requires participation of pull-connected organizations like General Electric et al.

cool. too bad it's in military stuff. where is our disruptive game-changing private sector technology?