[Milsurplus] conspiracy, "experts," and the future

[Peter Gottlieb]

I see lots of self-proclaimed "experts" who claim years in the industry, claims 
of what works and doesn't which are in direct conflict with each other and 
reality, and just plain paranoia about what is to come.

Look around you, do some real research.  I don't mean by reading unattributed 
opinions on the internet but by going to a *real* science library and spending a 
few days (with the research librarian helping you) following up on things.  Read 
some current trade journals, look at the NASA technology transfer program, read 
some of the newest white papers on communications.

You will find:

Freon(tm) makes it to the upper atmosphere with chemically significant partial 
pressure.

Different formulations break down differently.

Newer refrigerants are not that bad.

Thermoelectric devices are improving rapidly.

Hybrid thermoelectric/coolant systems (where the Peltier device shifts the 
temperature range dynamically to suit different refrigerants) are showing great 
promise for ultra high efficiency and environmentally friendly systems.

New radio techniques allow shocking numbers of simultaneous users in the *same* 
bandwidth.

And much more.

Times change, technology marches on.  The tube (valve) radios of the past have 
been replaced with transistors and digital signal processing which are now in 
many ways better than the older sets.  All of this will be replaced with 
error-corrected digitally-coded ultra wideband which will make us wonder how we 
ever thought we could fit everything into the crowded frequency spectrum.  There 
will always be a place in our hearts for the old technologies but I, for one, am 
not going to get so stuck in the past as to not embrace the future, neither in 
radio nor in any other area of technology.