(Replying to PARENT post)

The biggest problem domain worth pursuing is figuring out fusion. If we can unlock what is effectively limitless power a lot of problems become far more tractable. Everything else is a distraction. We need cheaper and more available power.

Every physicist and engineer in the world should probably try dedicating at least one or two month of their life to figuring out fusion.

If humanity could pay a trillion dollars to instantly unlock fusion it would still be considered a bargain. And yet we don't treat research into that field as something with such a potentially massive impact.

👤TheAceOfHearts🕑2y🔼0🗨️0

(Replying to PARENT post)

We are living a mass extinction right now (that's not a prediction for a future risk, that's a fact that we can observe now). The reason of this mass extinction is cheap, abundant energy: habitat loss comes from there.

Fusion would be great to finish making life on Earth look like surviving on Mars. Is that what you want?

What we need (and will most likely face anyway) is to do less with less. Organise society to live the forced degrowth that is coming, and survive the climate changes that we started and cannot possibly change anymore.

👤palata🕑2y🔼0🗨️0

(Replying to PARENT post)

Is fusion really that great? Decades of research and billions of dollars later it's still not commercially feasible.

Whereas solar power is cheaper than coal now. Also on the horizon is thorium reactors.

👤leptoniscool🕑2y🔼0🗨️0

(Replying to PARENT post)

It's never going to be useful.

D-T fusion is not as clean as is touted, and the economics just aren't ever going to make it viable compared to ever-cheaper solar, wind, batteries/energy storage, etc.

Better fission designs OTOH are worth pursuing, and also deep geothermal, and maybe one or two of the CCS options though they seem a bit greenwashy.

👤jacknews🕑2y🔼0🗨️0

(Replying to PARENT post)

learned about the Wendelstein X-7 this weekend (and stellarators in general) and they've accomplished some pretty impressive acheivements... i think there are many breakthroughs and things to be done in this space
👤fullstackchris🕑2y🔼0🗨️0

(Replying to PARENT post)

What's the biggest problem with fission that fusion solves?

My understanding is that that raw materials are a low % of total cost for fission, waste disposal is not that hard, and that it's technically more complicated and expensive to build a fusion plan than a fission plant.

I found this pretty interesting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tYlXY19I3c

👤oli5679🕑2y🔼0🗨️0

(Replying to PARENT post)

yeah ... fusion - the technology, which is always just 20 years away(tm) from commercial application ... since the early 1980ties / 40+ years :/
👤t312227🕑2y🔼0🗨️0

(Replying to PARENT post)

If we truly are living inside of a simulation, it makes sense that there would be a lootbox
👤supportengineer🕑2y🔼0🗨️0

(Replying to PARENT post)

"We need cheaper and more available power."

Based on your requirements, this is already solved. Pull more oil out of the ground. Burn more trees.

AND, throwing money at a problem will definitely solve fusion.

Give people cheap energy and people will use it up. Just look at cryptomining. Then you are back to needing more energy. People will do just fine with expensive energy. They will adapt.

👤mynonameaccount🕑2y🔼0🗨️0