5 ms·
Supporting institutional fusion research (ITER, MIT tokamak, et al) feels like discretely calculating the sum of the harmonic series: you can keep going for dec
by elevation 5y ago
Supporting institutional fusion research (ITER, MIT tokamak, et al) feels like discretely calculating the sum of the harmonic series: you can keep going for decades, but you'll never get much more than 57.7% (of a viable reactor.)
I'll be excited about the possibilities of usable fusion in my lifetime when SpaceX starts iterating toward a production design.
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic_series_(mathematics) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic_series_(mathematics)
- babelfish 5y agoYou think SpaceX is more likely to achieve commercially viable fusion than MIT and ITER?
- ncmncm 5y agoIs zero greater than or equal to zero? Yes!
- whimsicalism 5y agoWhat an obviously unreasonable position
- ncmncm 5y agoReality is uncooperative. Banish it.
- fallingknife 5y agoThan ITER, yes. MIT, no.
- nisegami 5y agoNot the person you're replying to, but I read that as "SpaceX pursuing production Fusion reactor designs would be a strong indication of Fusion being viable".
- ncmncm 5y agoThe corollary, then is "SpaceX NOT pursuing production fusion reactor designs is a strong indication of fusion NOT being viable". SpaceX is not, in fact, pursuing production fusion reactor designs.
- thehappypm 5y agoThat’s just bad logic IMO.
- ncmncm 5y agoExactly