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Discussion thread: INVISIBILITY PHOTOLOGY is up! (Patreon)

Published:
2023-05-12 02:41:56
Imported:
2026-06

Content

Our episode with optical theoretical physicist Dr. Greg Gbur is up! Technically it went up yesterday! Have you heard it yet? What did you think? 

Greg tells me all about camo patterns, flim flam, cloaks, fiberoptic fakeouts, science fiction, gorilla mischief, animal strategies, and walking around completely unseen.

What would you do if you were invisible for a day? TELL ME. 

Okay enjoy the ep!

-Ward VonPopcast 

Files

Invisible Photology (INVISIBILITY CLOAKS) with Dr. Greg Gbur - alie ward

Invisibility cloaks. Transparent frogs. Stealth bombers. Gorilla mischief. Theoretical optical physicist and Invisible Photologist Dr. Greg Gbur joins Alie to chat about light, illusions, secret technology, science fiction inspiration, terrible camouflage, great movies, historical mishaps, and even a few great household life hacks - and why you should go read a book on your porch.

Comments

Kinsey Page

I loved the episode because he kept seeming genuinely delighted at your eloquent / knowledgable questions. And I'm over here like "yes she is a science communicator and a queen, this is no surprise to anyone" 💕💕 I've listened to Ologies for years but new to the Patreon. Thanks for making such a kickass podcast, Alie!

choirqueer

When I was a little kid, I firmly believed that if I closed my eyes, I became invisible. It only seemed fair, right? If I can't see anyone, they can't see me either? Unfortunately, the reactions I got when I tried it out when it was clean-up time at preschool forced me to reëvaluate my beliefs.

Adam T. Berns

Weather permitting, I'd go EVERYWHERE as a nudist, even places regular nudists can't go. Regardless of the weather, I'd be freaking people out by driving around making it look like I was in an autonomous vehicle, and really freak the drive-thru people out at some fast food joints. Definitely sneak into some concert or sporting event and go backstage/on the field, perhaps even shenanigate a bit if the opportunity arose.

Antonia Clark

"like Reese's pieces, together and better for it", just like my life with Ologies. Also, if I could be invisible, I'd be pranking people all day 😜

Jessie Pearce

Yes this was such a fun episode! It reminded me why I loved my physics classes! I have so many ideas for being invisible for a day, there’s bank robbing, travel without lines, walk around at night!!

G Connolly

This episode healed my relationship with the science of light after taking a HORRIBLE science of light class at my art school 😆 also I did the vacuum trick today and my life is changed for the better

The Project Project

If I were invisible? For a whole DAY? Oh, man. Hijinks. I would get up to ALL THE HIJINKS.

Katie Hultman

You said my name and that I had a good question and then he said it was a good question and I am still giddy about it! It's such an awesome episode and the two of you are hilarious together! I had hoped he would talk about the V12 Vanish in Die Another Day because I forgot to ask. If I was invisible for a day I would probably just nap the whole time without people wanting me to do things for them and it would be glorious.

Scott Hanley

Clearly a fun ologies episodes now that it has come to light for me. And you are cute, too, Dadward.

bee

OBSESSED with his gorgeous gatos on the gram 😻😻

Kate Tildes

Will need to listen. What would I do? Hmm. Get on a plane and go somewhere cool.

Dianna Smith

I was fascinated by him and so happy to hear a researcher who retains his curiosity about the world.

jennyxxdreadful

If I could be invisible I would just fake my death and travel the world! Sneaking onto planes and yachts, eating all the good food!

JENN 'Benthopelagic squirrel' ALVAREZ

Why does his voice sound so familiar? Also, If I were invisible, I would put little hats and googly eyes on peoples pets to make them laugh (this is also my plan if I become a ghost)

Phoebe Teskey

I think ultimately I just loved that this interview about invisibility was, in fact, about debunking all of the current flimflam about invisibility and that currently, invisibility does not and cannot exist.

Ted Vician

One thought about vantablack and science fiction, one could imagine painting a satellite or spacecraft to be super dark and thus nearly invisible against space.

Jen Rigney

Great petty drama about Vantablack in the art world: Anish Kapoor got the exclusive license to use it for artistic applications, which pissed off a number of people. One of them developed a pink pigment which he would sell to anyone who could prove they were not Anish Kapoor.

Milan Ilnyckyj

Any other favourite depictions of invisibility tech in fiction? There are several cool examples in the Ghost in the Shell film and TV series, perhaps most notably the kidnapping of the Puppet Master from Section 9 custody. There are also some interesting applications in The Expanse: notably to reduce the detectability of asteroids to let them strike through planetary defences.

Alie Ward

Aww thank you for supporting, but on Patreon and with such kind words! I was so nervous to interview him!

Alie Ward

It makes sense at that age! And still, turning out the lights proves that.

Alie Ward

I completely forgot about letting my butt get some sun

Alie Ward

I wonder if ghosts LIVE for the pranks

Alie Ward

Physics isn't my strong suit so I tried so hard to explain things well with metaphors and I hope it worked-- glad you enjoyed it!

Alie Ward

Awww, yayy! Just think of all those different wavelengths when you're painting. Also so beautiful that all colors blend into their neighbors, numerically

Alie Ward

I have faith that you would, my friend. Also I have been calling you JayArr instead of Junior for YEARS???!

Alie Ward

Ahhh! Thank you for the great question! You have earned 2 naps.

Alie Ward

Those kitties are such little baby baby cuties

Alie Ward

Ooooh, sneak in that jump seat!

Alie Ward

Right?? It surprised me so much!

Alie Ward

Aaaah, thank you for that! So petty and I love this drama.

Scott Hanley

“Parmenides played an especially important role in establishing the field of inquiry known as ontology—which is the study of being and existence, and thus deals with the most foundational questions in Western intellectual history.” Just read this and had to share. Maybe you can find such an ologist, living.

Milan Ilnyckyj

Thanks so much. I hope you privately got across to Professor Gbur that the world needs that animal camouflage book. I have the Invisibility book in the mail right now.

Milan Ilnyckyj

There is lots about this kind of thing in William Gibson's recent fiction: secret symbols that activate backdoors in security systems to make them erase you... I get the sense that his curiosity and huge nerd standing means he has seen lots of prototype and experimental technology. You should ask him where he sees emerging trends in invisibility tech

Milan Ilnyckyj

Commentary thereupon from an essay on Humanities Commons (https://hcommons.org/deposits/download/hc:14252/CONTENT/notes-on-william-gibson.pdf/): "A desire to disappear. Characters in "The Peripheral" nearly always prefer dream states, projections, out-of-body experiences, time travel, medication, and dissociative experiences to living where they are. The book must have hundreds of examples of things that help people disappear: robots they can inhabit, toys they can wheel around by remote control, game worlds they can enter, Matrix-style teleportation comas they can enter, walls they can walk through, stand-ins they can program, cars and clothing that can be cloaked, cosplay zones populated with avatars and cyborgs, invisible tables in restaurants (eg, pp. 227-8). The characters are ostensibly driven by the fairly complex plot, but affectively, in terms of their desires, they all want to vanish. As I read, I often thought of the author, as opposed to his narrative: to write a book like this, I thought, a person needs to want to disappear. The language of "The Peripheral" is a concerted attempt to "cloak" ordinary writing in a veneer of micrometaphors, translucent to ordinary meaning but safe from it. The technology described in the book is an equally forceful attempt to picture ways that machines might help us dissolve some of our bodily mass and material into a foam of biogenic digital projections. The plot, too, can be understood this way, because it turns on time travel, and there are people in both the "present" (our near future) and "future" (seventy years farther on) who want to disappear, both within their own times, and within the "present"; and the plot is arranged in such a way that there are uncountable "presents," which diverge even as we read. What could be more comforting to someone who wants not to be present?"

Ted Vician

One form of technology invisibility that didn’t get discussed is the classic movie trope of “recording the empty hallway scene, then looping the playback so the guards can’t see us”, as used in tons of heist and spy movies like National Treasure and Speed. You could think of this as a sort of chronal invisibility because the observation is displaced in time, not space.

zombot

Thanks for reading my (non-)question, PodDad! I sawrit on some short internet video and it blew my mind.

Ted Vician

H G Wells’ Invisible Man had his body’s optical properties changed to be the same index of refraction as air; that was the explanation for his invisibility (and cutting edge science in 1897). One could imagine a smaller-scale version of this that allows making the top layers of skin transparent for medical observation or some very freaky tattoos.

Milan Ilnyckyj

Here's one theoretical way to implement some of this in fantasy or fiction: Some technology monitors everything you will be cloaking, like your body, clothing, and tools. That feeds into a graphics processor to work out how every part of the cloaked mass(es) will scatter light. It can then program a counter-scattering pattern, which could be deployed by manipulating local air density around the person using something like converging microwave beams or lasers tuned to produce constructive interference where needed. The same air pressure manipulation helps avoid unwanted collisions. You could create a pocket of cold air to subtly discourage getting within a few metres, stepping up to gentle backward shoving for anyone getting within polearm range…

Milan Ilnyckyj

Can air push? When a bomb goes off it's the air that pushes you. Could air be dense enough or refract enough? How about as nanoscale lenses formed from solid CO2 when the air is pressurized from extreme compression, akin to laser ignition of fusion pellets? Of course that might be noisy

Milan Ilnyckyj

As a bonus, the Young Sphere corrects for your astigmatism in real time by refracting the light being let through to allow you to see from inside (probably just a fraction, with alien / future tech light-amplification goggles to compensate).

choirqueer

Would invisibility protect against sunburn? Can the sun see you if you're invisible???

Feye

I think Vantablack was originally developed to have less reflective satellites. It was developed as tech, and the art was an extra..

Ted Vician

Makes sense. Less reflective and also highly emissive to radiate heat into space. I’d have concerns about how absorptive it is, since the satellites are exposed to direct sunlight much of the time. Seems like that could be mitigated with sun shields and careful orientation, but I’m not in the satellite business.

Alie Ward

Always a pleasure to say "Zombot," Zombot.

Milan Ilnyckyj

With intergalactic alien generation sensors, you could go well beyond just letting through enough light to see and correcting for lens distortions in the user. It could provide a 360 ° by 360 ° heads up display of full hyperspectral imagery across the electromagnetic spectrum, including radio, cosmic rays, and gamma rays. That can be supplemented with full multi-messenger astronomy via neutrino and gravity wave detection. There will be no nearby supernovae without a prompt alert to the user.

Allison P

I am very behind on podcasts and just heard this ep today but wanted to share. My partner works in optics, in a very different application, and I was looking forward to listening to this episode with him. It was fun getting to chat about some things my husbands company is doing related topics discussed in this ep. What I really wanted to share, though, is that while listening to this episode and scrolling through Instagram I had a sponsored ad for a certain brands tiny ice cream cones. Made me think of your dear pop and our Grandpod.