I always thought that this was a overlooked movie. The untimely death of Nat Wood had obv something to do with it. But looking at the story with older/wiser eyes, there is no way they could sell that thing to the anyone but the military. The device BEAMS directly into the brain!
shareVery true - the impact on humans and the addiction it would cause, it would turn the majority of us into vegetables who don't do anything.
Anyone working on such technology would be smart enough to know the military would want exclusive ownership if they actually had such a breakthrough. Lillian's bad reaction to the military wanting to take it over seems like surprise and shock. Really, from the start it would have been inevitable, even 38 years ago when this movie was released.
The military would have provided a lot of funding to the company also. She did say that she didn't want the project to end up on a defence scrap heap, so maybe she was more objected to it simply being shut down if it couldn't work properly.