These amazing superpowershave filled the daydreams of ordinary humans for as long as such stories have been around, and all of us have wondered how we might gain and utilize such special capabilities.
Rather than try to settle this impossible question, let me concede to those who wish to slash defense spending that history has not dealt kindly with geopolitical superpowers that have overextended themselves militarily and fiscally.
On the face of it, these contrasting US and Russian announcements seem to signal that geopolitics have reverted to the Cold War model of two superpowers competing for global power by, among other things, assisting their proxies in fighting one another.
It's a sign of just how far technology--and capitalism--have come that space is evolving from a testing ground for rival superpowers into a billionaire's playground.
As always happens when the former superpowers carry out naval exercises, the "other side" - the United States - did have submarines in the area of the Barents Sea where the exercise was taking place.