>>13243663You're suggesting that they'd go after someone simply for having an idea, despite the idea being talked about in a place and in a way that would cause anyone would think it was a larp.
If the prevailing attitude is that good ideas can only come out of academia, then it is very unlikely that anyone would take something seriously that did not have the tenor and context of something meant to be taken seriously.
Thought experiment: What would happen if someone invented the most important thing(s) ever conceived of and tried to make it sound bogus on purpose. Who would be bright enough to see through it, if anyone. How long would it take before someone realized what was going on?
Anyone who knows about spin knows that any idea or person can be made to sound crazy, no matter how reasonable it is. People flying around like birds? People instantly communicating with each other using light? Invisible radio waves? Wormholes that cut across a 5th dimension?
It only sounds crazy right up until the moment when everyone realizes it as established fact. The U.S. Government does not have the right to tell a private technology developer what to do or who they may sell their technologies to.
I think you overestimate the power of the U.S. Government over private industry. Really, the greater risk to an inventor may come from private industry in the case they actually do patent their ideas through the "Traditional channels" given that if it weren't were so groundbreaking, there'd be a fight for control over it.
Ronald Earhart though, I would look into that one.