Talk:STYLE
From Wise Nano
How easy is it to conceal a covert project? by Mike Treder, CRN 07:02, 21 Dec 2004 (CST)
Could there be a secret government or clandestine corporate project to develop molecular manufacturing (MM)? The standard objection to this is that such a project would be impossible to hide, that someone would leak it or some outside investigator would discover it.
To examine the difficulty of concealing a program to develop MM, it’s useful to consider two factors: the number of people working on, or aware of, the project; and the length of time it takes to succeed. As one or both factors expand, then the chance that the program will either be discovered or leaked increases substantially. So, the key factors are the number of people aware of the project, and the project’s duration.
(no topic) by 69.169.189.227 16:01, 21 Dec 2004 (CST)
There's at least one additional bit to consider - the buy-in of the people performing the research to the concept of secrecy. This doesn't have to be a rabid patriotism, it could simply be a consideration that the world might be better off under the control of a single ideology rather than being battled over by more than one ideology. Or, simply, the pay and benefits are good, or that it's a neat technical challenge - people take the same action for many different reasons, yet the action is identical.
More factors to consider by Matt 18:56, 21 Dec 2004 (CST)
Disinformation campaigns are useful to conceal true information among lots of untrue information; also, they don´t even have to be fully staged: UFO zealots ususally harm their case more than it benefits, while being on the wrong topic altogether. The occasional "ex staff member" revealing "secret" but wrong information to the media in the desired direction can be very useful, too.
Nanotechnology is inherently small, and so is the required working space. There is no way, ever, to conceal a major space program involving large rockets. For MM, a project could happen basically anywhere while keeping a low profile.
Also, it´s not the number of people working on the project, but rather the number of people that know about the project enough to know (or strongly suspect) the nature or goal of the whole project. This fact was demonstrated in the development of the first battletank. Indeed, the tank got its name from the very product workers were told they were working on. Thus, the number of people knowing about the project can be kept at a minimum. Of course, this is not necessarily applicable to a project in which top-notch scientists and engineers are involved, but dividing departments as far as possible without crippling the development process might still be a possibility.
