Ai vs AI: Question 25/81

How to become invisible?

Ai Weiwei: It is paradoxical to ask this question. It is inherently impossible.

ChatGPT (AI), January 2024: Achieving true invisibility is currently beyond the scope of scientific understanding and technology. Invisibility in a metaphorical sense may involve blending in or avoiding attention.

ChatGPT (AI), January 2025: The idea of becoming truly invisible, in the sense of completely vanishing from sight, is more of a fantasy in popular culture and science fiction. However, if you’re asking about ways to blend in or avoid detection, there are some real-world strategies, although they’re far from achieving literal invisibility.

1. Camouflage (Blending In with Your Environment):
   Clothing and Patterns: You can wear clothing that matches your surroundings, like using camouflage gear in nature or neutral colors in urban environments, which helps you blend in with the background.
   Behavioral Camouflage: People can also make themselves “invisible” by acting like they belong in a space. In crowds, for example, walking with purpose and avoiding drawing attention to yourself can help you stay unnoticed.
2. Technology and Optical Camouflage:
   Invisibility Cloaks: In the realm of science and technology, some experimental materials, like metamaterials or nanotechnology, are being studied for their potential to bend light around an object, making it appear invisible. While these technologies are not yet available for practical use, they’re the basis for “cloaking devices” in sci-fi.
   Optical Camouflage: Some researchers are working on systems that use cameras and projectors to create illusions, essentially displaying the environment behind an object to make it seem invisible. These technologies are still very early and not yet practical for human invisibility.
3. Minimizing Your Presence:
   Stay Out of Sight: Simply avoiding places where you’re likely to be seen, like staying out of public view or avoiding busy areas, can help you remain unnoticed.
   Social invisibility: In social contexts, people often blend in by avoiding drawing attention to themselves. Not standing out, staying quiet, or acting in ways that others don’t find remarkable can create a form of “social invisibility.”
4. Psychological Invisibility:
   Sometimes, you can appear “invisible” by making others forget you’re around. This could involve being non-intrusive, not interrupting others, and giving people space so they don’t focus on you. People tend to ignore what doesn’t capture their attention, so blending into the background can sometimes make you go unnoticed.
5. Stealthy Movement:
   In some situations, moving silently and without drawing attention to yourself can help avoid detection. Whether it’s in a crowd or in the wilderness, staying quiet and being mindful of your movements can help you go unnoticed.
   

The Limits of “Invisibility”:
While these methods might help you avoid being noticed in certain situations, true invisibility—like the kind seen in fantasy stories or superhero comics—remains out of reach in reality. For now, these strategies for blending in or staying hidden are the closest we have to becoming “invisible.”

Would you want to learn more about any of these techniques or how they work in specific scenarios?

DeepSeek (AI), January 2025:Becoming invisible is a concept often explored in science fiction and fantasy, but in reality, achieving true invisibility is not currently possible with existing technology. However, there are some scientific principles and experimental technologies that aim to mimic or approximate invisibility. Here’s an overview:

The Science of Invisibility:

1. Light Manipulation:
   – Invisibility would require bending light around an object so that it doesn’t reflect or absorb any light, making the object undetectable to the human eye.
   – This concept is based on the idea of “metamaterials”, which are artificially engineered materials designed to manipulate electromagnetic waves, including visible light.
2. Metamaterials:
   – Researchers have developed metamaterials that can bend light around objects, effectively making them “invisible” to specific wavelengths of light. However, this technology is still in its early stages and works only on a microscopic scale or for limited wavelengths (e.g., microwaves, not visible light).
3. Active Camouflage:
   – Active camouflage systems use cameras and displays to project the background onto the surface of an object, making it blend in with its surroundings. While not true invisibility, this can create the illusion of being invisible.
   – Example: Some military prototypes and experimental technologies use this principle for stealth applications.
   
4. Cloaking Devices:
   – Theoretical cloaking devices involve bending light or other forms of radiation around an object. While progress has been made in cloaking small objects from specific types of waves (e.g., radar or sound), cloaking from visible light remains a significant challenge.

Practical Limitations:
– Scale: Current invisibility technologies work only on very small scales or for specific wavelengths of light, not for entire human-sized objects.
– Energy Requirements: Manipulating light in this way would require immense amounts of energy and advanced materials that do not yet exist.
– Viewing Angles: Even if an object were made invisible from one angle, it might still be visible from other angles.

Pop Culture and Fiction:
Invisibility is a popular trope in stories, often achieved through magical means (e.g., the invisibility cloak in *Harry Potter*) or advanced technology (e.g., the Predator’s cloaking device). While these ideas are fascinating, they remain fictional for now.

What You Can Do Today:
While true invisibility isn’t possible, you can achieve the illusion of invisibility through:
– Camouflage: Wearing clothing or using materials that blend into your surroundings.
– Stealth Techniques: Moving quietly and avoiding detection in low-light environments.
– Digital Invisibility: Using encryption, anonymity tools, or privacy settings to remain “invisible” online.

In summary, while the idea of becoming invisible is captivating, it remains beyond the reach of current science and technology. However, ongoing research in metamaterials and light manipulation continues to push the boundaries of what might be possible in the future.

To coincide with the exhibition, 81 Questions – a series of 81 hand-signed and embossed screen prints featuring the 81 questions posed by Ai Weiwei – are available exclusively on CIRCA.ART for £500+VAT.

“Each Lego brick pixel represents a person”, says Ai Weiwei, who incorporates the plastic construction toy – a readymade material incorporated into many of his most recent works – into his print design for the first time. The black egalitarian pixel font and embossed baseplate combine technology with artisanal craft to create this thought-provoking and playful reflection on today’s world. Each print in the series of 81 Questions is hand-signed and numbered by the artist in editions of 81.