New inventions.

I'm not sure where to put this post, please move it if it's in the wrong place Mods.

With so much political violence in the world today consider this.
If you were an independent scientist and you invented a new material that was ten times stronger than steel and a quarter the weight of aluminium, would you offer the invention to the highest bidder knowing that your product could benefit mankind but could also be used by the military to say make bombs lighter and far more effective or some other destructive purpose.
I doesn’t have to be a material, anything that could be used for good or evil, if you get my meaning.
Another question, if you are the inventor are you obliged by law to give your government first refusal?

Re: New inventions.

But this quandary exists for a lot of things - do you make a load of dosh or sell your soul to the devil?

The way things are now it would probably be prudent to try and make a load of money el pronto and bugger off to somewhere that might survive the approaching apocalypse.

Re: New inventions.

I think it may already been invented Jem , 'Graphene' has many of the attributes of which you speak

Re: New inventions.

Sell to the highest bidder. If you went to the government, they would have to form a committee, write a report, review it, debate it, re-visit it and finally reject it. In the meantime, the Americans would have copied it, the Germans would have improved it and the Japanese would have made it cheaper and more reliable.

Re: New inventions.

Yes Meg I've seen a very interesting program about that some time ago, such fantastic stuff and sooo thin, there were great hopes for it's future, good use only I hope.

It's a tough one Mark, I'm reminded of ET in Spielbergs film, the government men dying to get their hands on him. I think if I found an alien in the back garden I'd tell him to piss off and land somewhere else, I'm too old to be running from G-men.

Re: New inventions.

Ask the guys who were on flight MH370 that question as literally that very morning their patent was granted for their invention .. Makes a plane invisible on radar'
A sceptic would say how strange these guys happened to be on a flight to China with such an invention , almost as if Uncle Sam wanted them dead ... Hmmmm but hey , governments would never do such a thing over an invention ... Right?!

Re: New inventions.

As on off topic /on topic thing re inventions , years ago I did indeed invent something but you can't patent an idea, have to have a working example .. Whilst making one and securing manufacturing rights another guy beat me to it .. Patented it and it won prince Charles tomorrow's world award...but still not in use today ! But that's another story

Re: New inventions.

You may as well spit it out. It will help take our minds off all the other heated discussions going on at the moment.

Re: New inventions.

Well you can't just leave it at that. It's like a teaser, stop keeping us in the dark and spill the beans.

Re: New inventions.

Very dodgy telling Emjay, the CIA are all over the place, we don't want our Alien abducted do we.