10 Of The Wildest Technology Conspiracy Theories

Government project HAARP is allegedly an energy weapon that can cause earthquakes.

The High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, or HAARP, makes use of powerful antenna arrays to study the ionosphere. The ultimate aim to improve radio and wireless communications technology.

But it's also the object of conspiracy theory. Supposedly, the antennas are actually used for nefarious purposes ranging from weather control to mind control to satellite neutralization.

A longer-lasting light bulb has allegedly been kept out of consumer hands on purpose.

The "Phoebus cartel" was a collection of several major companies which included General Electric and Philips Electronics. And it's been accused of maxing out light bulb life at 1,000 hours, suppressing a longer-lasting light bulb from the public.

This is even the subject of a documentary called "Light Bulb Conspiracy."

The military can allegedly make warships invisible.

This one's a classic –– the "Philadelphia Experiment" was allegedly an effort to turn a U.S. Navy vessel invisible. Using degaussing (anti-magnetic field) technology to eliminate magnetic fields from the USS Eldridge in 1934, the ship allegedly disappeared (some say it was replaced with a "greenish fog").

The government allegedly researched mind control and time travel.

The Montauk Project was apparently a continuation of the previously-mentioned Philadelphia Experiment. It saw the government training psychics and exploring potential applications of mind control and time travel.

The federal government did briefly experiment with mind-control techniques in the 1970s, via a project called MKUltra, but they were a failure.

IBM allegedly cheated in the supercomputer chess match against Garry Kasparov.

There is a theory out there that when IBM's Deep Blue supercomputer faced off against Grand Master Garry Kasparov in a game of chess in May of 1997, IBM cheated in order to win and drum up lots of publicity.

This theory is explored in depth in the documentary "Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine."

Your digital television box is allegedly wired for video and sound.

If you fear "Big Brother," you'll want to take a close look at your set-top box.

Some claim to have found cameras and microphones in them, supposedly a means for the government to spy on its citizens. Another theory says that these digital television signals are used for mind control and subliminal advertising.

Actually, Google, Verizon, Microsoft, and Comcast have all submitted patent applications to allow DVRs to spy on their viewers.

Energy is free.

Numerous people and organizations won't hesitate to tell you that theoretical technologies like cold fusion and air-powered cars are not only possible, but practical as well. Entities ranging from energy companies to governments are allegedly stepping in to keep these technologies inaccessible.

Cold fusion, however, has been studied and dismissed.

You can make a perpetual motion engine with magnets.

It's a tantalizing idea: Magnets lose their power very, very slowly. So why you can't you harness them in an arrangement that would turn a gear for as long as the magnet's power lasts, in virtual perpetuity?

Here's a video of a guy who thinks he's cracked it. Stick with it until 3.20, when he describes how his engine has been cannibalized from a weed-whacker.

Perpetual motion machines defy the laws of physics — there's no such thing as a free lunch! — which is why no magnet motor patents have ever come good.

Microsoft allegedly hid anti-Semitic messages in its "Wingdings" font.

Remember those quirky Wingdings and Webdings fonts that let you type all kinds of symbols with your keyboard? Some think they contain secret anti-Semitic messages pertaining to 9/11.

Typing "NYC" in either typeface yields the results pictured to the right. Typing "Q33NYC" in Wingdings shows an airplane flying into two towers.

This is almost certainly an unfortunate coincidence.