Comment by pinoy420
4 days ago
No it’s pointless doing it because some guy on HN said it’s a long way off and therefore you are not allowed to be excited or enthusiastic about it.
4 days ago
No it’s pointless doing it because some guy on HN said it’s a long way off and therefore you are not allowed to be excited or enthusiastic about it.
The thing is, after repeatedly getting excited about commercial fusion power for the past sixty years, it's tough to maintain enthusiasm.
For me I worry it's like the search for the northwest passage. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Passage). Explorers spent about 400 years searching for something that they knew just had to be there, but when they finally did it (1957), it really wasn't important anymore.
> The thing is, after repeatedly getting excited about commercial fusion power for the past sixty years, it's tough to maintain enthusiasm.
It’s very easy if you’re even a tiny bit interested in the scientific aspects. Since we started we’ve had several generations of superconductors, huge advances in our understanding of materials and plasma physics (a bit niche but still very cool).
ITER itself is fascinating if you’re into large-scale engineering and planning. If you are into this and not interested in ITER, I would recommend having another look.
> Explorers spent about 400 years searching for something that they knew just had to be there, but when they finally did it (1957), it really wasn't important anymore.
Yes, it’s a risk and it might well end up that way. Still, many discoveries have already been made along the way, and it is impossible to predict its success or failure without actually trying to do it.
The Northwest Passage is important now tho. The short path from most of Eurasia to North America goes through the Arctic. Ice caps are diminishing/going away. The US wants Greenland. All of these are related.
What's funny is that AI has been failing to be achieved for much longer than fusion energy yet so many here are convinced we're on the cusp of an AI apocalypse.
I have more faith in fusion power in 20 years than anyone claiming AGI is coming in the exact same timeframe.
What's pointless for anyone who cares about fusion is commenting on it from the peanut gallery (i.e., any form of social media) rather than participating in R&D in any way whatsoever. The same goes for online outrage: https://par.nsf.gov/servlets/purl/10095997
This entire site is nothing more than a sales and marketing tool and otherwise exists to waste peoples' time.
> What's pointless for anyone who cares about fusion is commenting on it from the peanut gallery (i.e., any form of social media) rather than participating in R&D in any way whatsoever.
Some of us do both :)
Beautiful irony in getting ratioed for this post.