That assumes it's an NDA at all. Far more likely is that it is a statement requesting acknowledgement that the reader understands that releasing top secret information may be punishable by X years in prison or, if done to aid enemies of the state, treason/sedition charges.
That would be illegal under the US legal system. Just enacting such a clause or issuing an order to do so would be worth a decade, minimum, in prison for any government official.
We don't have anything resembling the Official Secrets Act because we
can't. It would be grossly in violation of our highest laws. Violating a properly signed NDA can be prosecuted, but violating an NDA signed under duress is not illegal.
If anyone not bound by an NDA gets ahold of classified data, they are free to publish it or not as they choose. This is one of the checks and balances built into our system of laws and government.
"Yeah, I figure if anyone else had seen this they'd be making sure I didn't go Scanners or something, but it's not like I'm flopping around or anything. I feel fine." Taylor calmly noted as she pulled up a 3-D false color image of her brain, the image almost entirely red with activity. "I figure I'm using somewhere around 80% of my cortex."
That's a long-debunked myth, from a time when brain function was much less well understood. All humans use 100% of their brain, just not all parts at once, because different parts have different functions.
It's more likely that on Earth Bet children are legally capable of signing an NDA and having it be binding.
Then they are legally not children. The ability to sign contracts like that is what makes someone an adult.
You know, since that seems to be true in the main story as well, what are the limits of that? How far does Taylor have to go before she is more trouble then she's worth? Killing the president (i actually suspect that wouldn't be enough, after all you can always get another president, harder to get another Taylor) Genocide? Restarting the Slaughterhouse 9?
I suspect she'd get away with anything short of reviving disco.
Right, because we'd totally start with human testing, and human testing only.
If we suspected we had a time machine, early tests would include passing notes.
Actually, the first 'test' would almost certainly be a dire warning of disaster from the future. Because anyone needing to send such a warning would target the earliest possible window to send it. There's a mad scientist-produced device like that in the prologue of the MMORPG Rift - a device to allow people caught in some future world-wrecking crisis to travel back to prevent the crisis. And someone steps out of it the instant it's first switched on.
but I should point out that they use VI, not AI. AI stands for abominable intelligence. So the modern machine spirits have nothing to do with AI, even if they did in the past. Virtual intelligence, along with brains that have been 'Ship of Theseused' until there aren't any meaty bits left are all that they use.
Which might be why they've lost most of their tech - if it's so complex it takes a full AI to comprehend it...
Taylor's very first public invention would let them trivially build a flying car that can run for days off AA batteries, who needs an engine at all.
The main obstacle to flying cars in our world is regulatory, not technical. I wouldn't be surprised if Earth Bet was the same way - with the added worry of Tinkertech possibly spewing radiation the Tinker is unaware of while the car is in operation.
en.wikipedia.org
