4 ms·

It took more than 300 years to build the cathedral [1] in my home town (albeit with a 60-year pause in the middle). So indeed it might take another 4 or 5 gener

by Xixi 5y ago

It took more than 300 years to build the cathedral [1] in my home town (albeit with a 60-year pause in the middle). So indeed it might take another 4 or 5 generations to master nuclear fusion, but I see no issue with that. We should not shy away from starting projects that we won't see any benefit in our lifetime. But of course, it also means that we should not rely on nuclear fusion being available in the short term... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metz_Cathedral https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metz_Cathedral

rurp 5y ago
I suspect there was a lot of inceramental value to be had while the construction was ongoing. A cathedral doesn't need to be 100% complete to use as a house of worship, an inspiration for the community, a display of wealth and soft power, and so on. Fusion hasn't really produced much utility at all so far, aside from some interesting discussions.
- gameswithgo 5y ago
  I imagine there have been some practical and theoretical gains from efforts to make fusion work already: https://www.energy.gov/science/articles/fusion-research-ignites-innovation https://www.energy.gov/science/articles/fusion-research-igni...
- bin_bash 5y ago
  Are you trying to argue therefore we should stop or something? There are countless areas of research and activities we do as humans that offer virtually no tangible benefit to society. It seems to me that fusion is unfairly criticized because there is an obvious end-goal.
pengaru 5y ago
If you never stop working on some creative art project it's never finished, your endless cathedral build has nearly zero relevance to nuclear fusion producing electricity for consumers which would be a definitive "delivered" goalpost, after which any further developments/improvements would just be optimization iterations. I'm reminded of the Crazy Horse Memorial... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_Horse_Memorial https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_Horse_Memorial
hnfong 5y ago
The linear model of time estimates here work well for cathedrals but not necessarily for scientific and engineering advancements. For a Cathedral, you have a general idea of how long it's going to take (at least finite) and know that every piece of material added onto the structure is going to move it closer to the end goal. For things like fusion, anything beyond say 20 years is basically a bullsh_t speculative guess that sounds better than "we don't really know whether this will even work out in the end". It doesn't really matter whether it's 30 or 60. The real question is whether the number is finite or infinite.

by Xixi 5y ago

rurp 5y ago

I suspect there was a lot of inceramental value to be had while the construction was ongoing. A cathedral doesn't need to be 100% complete to use as a house of worship, an inspiration for the community, a display of wealth and soft power, and so on. Fusion hasn't really produced much utility at all so far, aside from some interesting discussions.

gameswithgo 5y ago
I imagine there have been some practical and theoretical gains from efforts to make fusion work already: https://www.energy.gov/science/articles/fusion-research-ignites-innovation https://www.energy.gov/science/articles/fusion-research-igni...
bin_bash 5y ago
Are you trying to argue therefore we should stop or something? There are countless areas of research and activities we do as humans that offer virtually no tangible benefit to society. It seems to me that fusion is unfairly criticized because there is an obvious end-goal.

pengaru 5y ago

If you never stop working on some creative art project it's never finished, your endless cathedral build has nearly zero relevance to nuclear fusion producing electricity for consumers which would be a definitive "delivered" goalpost, after which any further developments/improvements would just be optimization iterations. I'm reminded of the Crazy Horse Memorial... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_Horse_Memorial https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_Horse_Memorial

hnfong 5y ago

The linear model of time estimates here work well for cathedrals but not necessarily for scientific and engineering advancements. For a Cathedral, you have a general idea of how long it's going to take (at least finite) and know that every piece of material added onto the structure is going to move it closer to the end goal. For things like fusion, anything beyond say 20 years is basically a bullsh_t speculative guess that sounds better than "we don't really know whether this will even work out in the end". It doesn't really matter whether it's 30 or 60. The real question is whether the number is finite or infinite.