Tangent, but your mention of sleeper botnets made me think of sleeper military technology.
Does the US (and/or other countries) have ultra-advanced tech that hasn't seen the light of day - an ace in the hole against a truly threatening opponents? If so, under what conditions would it be revealed and utilized? Lots of interesting game theory considerations.
We oft hear stories along the lines of "oh yeah, the military was working on [recently revealed technology] 30 years ago...just think of what they have now". But does that stuff actually exist, or is it a sort of wishful thinking / propaganda? If it does exist, how do you create enough of it to be effective, but still keep it a secret? When exactly would you utilize it? In a full on, WW III, nuclear all-out brawl, your secret space laser may not be all that useful. But dare you reveal it for anything less?
(From memory, I believe that) it was an upgraded blackhawk helicopter that crashed in the Pakistani compound during the Osama bin Laden operation. The seals detonated all the sensitive electronic internals, but the hitherto unrevealed stealth tech on the outside of the craft was recovered by Pakistan, and handed to the Russians (or China?) for analysis before it was returned to the US.
Clearly the US thought that operation was worth losing some secret tech. I'd agree it was a worthwhile opportunity. But is that really the limit of our secret tech - moderately more advanced stealth coating? Where are the energy guns, the anti-grav, the truly groundbreaking stuff?
Does the US (and/or other countries) have ultra-advanced tech that hasn't seen the light of day - an ace in the hole against a truly threatening opponents? If so, under what conditions would it be revealed and utilized? Lots of interesting game theory considerations.
We oft hear stories along the lines of "oh yeah, the military was working on [recently revealed technology] 30 years ago...just think of what they have now". But does that stuff actually exist, or is it a sort of wishful thinking / propaganda? If it does exist, how do you create enough of it to be effective, but still keep it a secret? When exactly would you utilize it? In a full on, WW III, nuclear all-out brawl, your secret space laser may not be all that useful. But dare you reveal it for anything less?
(From memory, I believe that) it was an upgraded blackhawk helicopter that crashed in the Pakistani compound during the Osama bin Laden operation. The seals detonated all the sensitive electronic internals, but the hitherto unrevealed stealth tech on the outside of the craft was recovered by Pakistan, and handed to the Russians (or China?) for analysis before it was returned to the US.
Clearly the US thought that operation was worth losing some secret tech. I'd agree it was a worthwhile opportunity. But is that really the limit of our secret tech - moderately more advanced stealth coating? Where are the energy guns, the anti-grav, the truly groundbreaking stuff?
Okay, rambling over!