Science of Invisibility : How Possible is it to have Harry Potter's Invisibility Cloak?

With invisibility, one cannot only hide himself from enemies, one can also hide objects or things that may be of value to her and to other people that others may be interested of stealing. With the use of invisibility one can protect and secure himself and his valuables because people with negative plans against him or his thing wouldn’t be able to locate him.

However, one possible act someone can do with the power of invisibility cloak is to sneak into other people’s room undetected. This idea would jeopardize other people’s privacy. Someone then can’t easily conclude to be alone in his/her room if there’s a possibility of someone sneaking inside the room and just watching him/her.

Another act that someone can also do with an invisibility cloak is to steal. A thief for example, can easily steal from jewelry stores, banks, pawnshops, convenience stores, etc. without being recognized or seen. CCTV cameras then would become useless for this kind of sophisticated criminal and the worse thing is he can do it again and again because no one has known his face in the first place. If robbers can easily enter and rob, lot of businessmen would be hesitant to start or continue business. Because with the robbers able to easily penetrate their shops and steal, they would be bankrupt. This would make a negative impact with the country’s economy because there would be lesser investors and businessmen who would risk business in a country with thieves easily able to rob their factories.

With invisibility, people can also easily sneak into malls with prohibited objects like guns, knives, or worst bombs. Terrorists would find this invisibility technology useful and bomb public places, this scenario is already common but would become easier and sophisticated with the help of invisibility.

Another application for the power of invisibility that Michiu Kaku pointed out in his book Physics of the Impossible is to make airplanes invisible to radar. With this kind of technology, foreigners could easily enter other countries without prior notice to the government of the country. These foreigners could be carrying with them contagious diseases and those diseases might spread out in the invaded country when those foreigners will have direct contact with the natives. Spread of various diseases would become faster with this kind of technology.

If people can have airplanes invisible from radars they can also do it with their missiles, soldiers, cannons, etc. Military section perhaps could get the most advantage out of this kind of technology. Some countries might use invisibility to attack other countries. Given the missiles or other attacking device invisible, the attacked countries wouldn’t be able to counteract and know which country attacked them because of the power of invisibility. When in war, invisibility cloaks could be the best way to camouflage. Opponents of these invisible soldiers would have the least chance to win because they will not have any idea where they would aim their guns. It will also be difficult to guess where these invisible soldiers are hiding and when they are going to fire their bullets. This kind of technology however would possibly be available only with the richest countries spending the most efforts in developing this device. And this device would be a total advantage for those countries possessing it and a total disadvantage to their opponents who don’t have.

In general possible existence of invisibility would give people protection from their enemies but at the same time would also risk people’s security and privacy. It would also make someone advantageous in wars. Criminals can also take advantage with this kind of technology making their crimes more sophisticated and them staying unknown. As what Plato pointed out in his philosophical masterpiece, The Republic, to use such power as invisibility is irresistible once someone is able to possess it. With the power of invisibility the temptation of being able to steal and kill at will is something that man can’t resist for all men are corruptible (Michiu Kaku, Physics of the Impossible). This kind of device is advantageous to the one who possess it but disadvantageous to those who do not. Yet still humans were created with will. Using invisibility to do bad might be something irresistible but the decision to use it or not use it in such purpose still highly depends on the person.