>>7711754The last 20 years, inb4 years meme, has seen more advancement on the energy in > energy out ratio than ever before.
Fusion power is the only long term option humanity has. Our rate of growth eclipsed the rate of (if you believe) the Earth's oil production decades ago. Renewables require energy storage and grid advancements that will take 40 years to reach, nevermind that massive wind farms fuck up the weather and solar panels on a global supply scale take massive amounts of dwindling REEs.
If I had the wealth of Apple I would selectively donate half of my cash to fusion research projects, something like 40 times more than the pissant paltry meager sums the entire field has received over 30 years.
Imagine where we'd be if they actually had the money to proceed no-frills.
>inb4 VSG pipes in with his "impossible to create a true gravity fed fusion"Yeah, no shit asshole.
Electromagnetics, materials science, is the key. Not 15 years ago "high temperature" superconductors were simply the fantasy toy of highly funded esoteric labs that played with one possibly working sample a year. Now there are dozens of samples, with working options available next decade.
With higher operating temp superconductors the power req to maintain a pressure field decreases exponentially, the cooling requirements (which could/would be shunted off to a steam powered electricity generator anyways) are drastically reduced.
It takes 2 billion dollars to create the next processor line with only 5% more performance per watt than the last, and they get thrown away next year.
It took 2 billion dollars over 15 years to make this one test, of something infinitely more important (long term). What if money like that was put into the fusion field since 1990? Instead of scraping the barrel?
VSG, would you rather be hopelessly pessimistic about unknowns, yet always dismayed by the short sighted goals of our race, or would you rather put effort and resource to something that may be the answer?
