plumbbob12
Skilled Investigator
Lately a lot of discussion has been taking place on the idea of reverse engineering, and the impossibility of humans being able to reverse such advanced technology. At first, I was taken in with the analogy brought forth by such greats as S. F and Hopkins. The metaphor used was the idea of having an F-16 Jet land in 1864 civil war era, and getting Abe Lincoln to ask the scientist of the time to figure out how this thing works, and use the technology. The idea was that this would be impossible for people in the 1800’s to figure out how a jet aircraft works. Upon thinking about this analogy, I discovered some problems with this mind set.
Most of our current science was developed about 400 years ago. Newtonian physics put men on the moon. Most of our technology until just the past 30 years ago was almost exclusive Newtonian physics which the folks of the 1800’s were well aware of. They could have easily seen how the wings of the jet achieved lift and advanced our development of air craft by 40 years. They also could have looked into the turbo jet, and understood the combustion process and the use of jet fuel, i.e. Kerosene to make this motor spin. In conclusion, although this metaphor works to an extent, as they could never completely understand all the technology of the F-16, they would be able to understand enough to advance the technology by decades at least. If our little gray guys were only a couple hundred years advanced of us, we could obtain some real technology by reverse engennering a craft. The idea that we could never understand anything about there technology does not hold up, unless these guys were thousands of years ahead of us, and then the example would hold. pb
Most of our current science was developed about 400 years ago. Newtonian physics put men on the moon. Most of our technology until just the past 30 years ago was almost exclusive Newtonian physics which the folks of the 1800’s were well aware of. They could have easily seen how the wings of the jet achieved lift and advanced our development of air craft by 40 years. They also could have looked into the turbo jet, and understood the combustion process and the use of jet fuel, i.e. Kerosene to make this motor spin. In conclusion, although this metaphor works to an extent, as they could never completely understand all the technology of the F-16, they would be able to understand enough to advance the technology by decades at least. If our little gray guys were only a couple hundred years advanced of us, we could obtain some real technology by reverse engennering a craft. The idea that we could never understand anything about there technology does not hold up, unless these guys were thousands of years ahead of us, and then the example would hold. pb