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You're thinking 100 years down the road. I'm thinking 100,000. We need fusion to bootstrap getting off this planet. We need fusion to provide the power to star
by cbozeman 6y ago
You're thinking 100 years down the road. I'm thinking 100,000.
We need fusion to bootstrap getting off this planet. We need fusion to provide the power to start terraforming either Mars or Venus. Either planet will require obscene power loads to terraform and will likely be 500-1000 year endeavors.
We not only have to get off this planet to survive as a species, we have to get out of this solar system.
We don't do that without extremely potent power sources that use abundant, cheap fuel.
- nicoburns 6y agoWhy would we work on the 100,000 years problem right now when we have an immediate existential threat on a 10s of years timescale?
- cbozeman 6y agoWe don't face an existential threat on a decades-long timescale. We were told the same thing in the 60s. It didn't turn out to be true then, it won't turn out to be true now. No one. No. One. Has made accurate predictions about long-term climate change effects so far. And I imagine 40 years from now, when I'm 80, I'll be hearing about some new climate disaster that will befall us. This is Malthusianism all over again. Technology allowed us to progress past Malthus, it'll allow us to progress past climate change... but only if its cheap, plentiful, usable 24/7, and shared with the world. All things fusion could achieve.