Science adviser Michael Kratsios delivered a speech that has since gone viral, in which he spoke about developing technologies.
The address was made during the Endless Frontiers Retreat in Austin, Texas, earlier this month and has since set tongues wagging.
"We have weighed down our builders and innovators. The well-intentioned regulatory regime of the 1970s became an ever-tightening ratchet, first hampering America’s ability to become a net-energy exporter and then making it harder and harder to build," said Kratsios.
"We seem to have lost focus and vision, to have lowered our sights and let systems and structures and bureaucracies muddle us along.
"But we are capable of so much more.
"Our technologies permit us to manipulate time and space. They leave distance annihilated, cause things to grow, and improve productivity."
It's important to note that the statement was likely meant to be metaphorical - rather than implying time travel - but it's certainly set off speculation online from people who have taken it quite literally.
After the White House shared the transcript, one person wrote online: "We have the technology to manipulate time and space?"
While another added: "WHAT DID HE JUST SAY?!"
And a third said: "@POTUS science and technology advisor @mkratsios47 Michael Kratsios (a fmr under secretary of DoD & US CTO) makes the most extraordinary assertion here without explanation, that US, '…technologies permit us to manipulate time and SPACE'. What means he?"
And a fourth added: "Kratsios casually says we intentionally stagnated our technology in the 70s and we now have tech to manipulate space and time. Wow."
Others wondered if Kratsios would have ever imagined that his comments could have sparked such a reaction online.
Another theorised: "Let that sink in. Because last week, NASA detected algae-like compounds in the atmosphere of K2-18 b — a water-rich exoplanet over 120 light-years away. The same kind of compounds produced by algae here on Earth. The same algae that sustains life.
"And then there’s MH370, a commercial flight with 239 souls that vanished — no wreckage, no answers. What if they didn’t crash? What if they were relocated?
"If you think that sounds insane, consider this: Every ancient culture has stories of ascension, disappearance, or divine evacuation. The Bible calls it The Rapture.
"Science might call it something else: dimensional migration. Or off-world extraction.
"Maybe some of us are already gone. Maybe this is just the warm-up."
What do you think?
Topics: World News, Politics, US News, Technology, Science
