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[Sergarr]

It would've helped if there was a big Fusion Race, too, instead of the almost-useless Moon Race. I've been recently on a visit to a Russian fusion research reactor T-10, and it's a shame that there are so few of them in existence. They look quite... spectacular. Especially those big toroidal coils above, they look like something straight out of science fiction.

[ChairmanPoo]

You know Russians used those to hunt bears to extinction right?

[Askot Bokbondeler]

how exactly did they come up with that graph?looks like something out of a strategy game tech tree

[wierd]

Look up the paper it is from, and find out for yourself.

[Gigaz]

We WOULD have cracked it MUCH MUCH sooner, had spending been at levels other than "Oh, just give them a pittance to shut them up. We cant afford to unseat Big Oil right now." and more at "Oh, yeah-- We kinda need to actually consider having a replacement ready when we run out of carbon to dig up, huh?" levels.

Physics usually doesn't work like this, because it is more intertwined. Fusion requires good superconductors, computational plasma physics, resilient materials and so on. Quite possibly today we have in principle all we need for a economically feasible fusion reactor and we just have to assemble and test everything. But it couldn't be done with 1990th technology.

[i2amroy]

We WOULD have cracked it MUCH MUCH sooner, had spending been at levels other than "Oh, just give them a pittance to shut them up. We cant afford to unseat Big Oil right now." and more at "Oh, yeah-- We kinda need to actually consider having a replacement ready when we run out of carbon to dig up, huh?" levels.

Physics usually doesn't work like this, because it is more intertwined. Fusion requires good superconductors, computational plasma physics, resilient materials and so on. Quite possibly today we have in principle all we need for a economically feasible fusion reactor and we just have to assemble and test everything. But it couldn't be done with 1990th technology.

I think the idea is that by increasing spending in a particular branch that used all of those pieces of physics we would have stimulated growth in the related areas, meaning that we would have gotten good superconductors, computational plasma physics, resilient materials, and so forth that much sooner along with our working fusion.

[wierd]

Correct.

(The new German fusion design is fascinating because it uses a novel form of layered magentic confinement that solves a number of standing issues with the fusion plasma interacting with the containment vessel walls-- That kind of insight would not have been possible with 1990s tech.  However, providing good incentive for researchers to examine such things would likely have resulted in the theory behind it being produced sooner, and the first functional test prototype reactor being built sooner.)

[ChairmanPoo]

Technological advance is an inherently iterative process. One does not simply take sand from the beach and produce a tablet. We use crude tools to fashion better tools, and then our better tools to fashion more precise tools, and so on. Each minor refinement is a step in the process, and all of the steps must be taken.

[wierd]

When you better support tool makers, and provide incentives for innovative tools, the rate of evolution of tools increases.

The same is true of researchers and theoretical models of reality.  You don't "Skip" straight to the end game. Instead, you learn to crawl sooner, crawl for a shorter period, and end up walking sooner than the others that were not so incentivized.

Look at the affect of the space race had on a wide multitude of technological fronts-- The push to go to the moon, coupled with aggressive spending to make that a reality, gave us microwave ovens, velcro, better metalurgical formulations, improvements in computer and signalling technology, and a wide assortment of other innovations.

[Shadowlord]

German fusion design?

Lockheed Martin isn't German, are they?

[wierd]

No Silly-- Lockheed Martin is usually fixated on inertial and linear confinement fusion, because of its obvious applications in making bigger bombs.

I was discussing the magnetic confinement fusion design used to build the Wendelstein 7-X experimental stellerator fusion device

Hint: It's German. Designed by Germans. In Germany.

[Shadowlord]

That thing I linked to is magnetic!

[wierd]

....

By the looks of it, their design is a modified Farnsworth design....
http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2012/ph241/klopfer2/

(Note, it is a VEEERY old design, and does not typically come anywhere close to approaching unity.)

The stellerator design is significantly more interesting, as it solves several outstanding issues in the fusion plasma stream dynamics, as well as with fusion plasma containment and control.

[Helgoland]

Hint: It's German. Designed by Germans. In Germany.

As a German, I'm proud to inform you that it's a cooperative European project, though of course a large portion of the financing is stemmed by Germany.

[ChairmanPoo]

Hint: It's German. Designed by Germans. In Germany.

As a German, I'm proud to inform you that it's a cooperative European project, though of course a large portion of the financing is stemmed by Germany.

Human behavior is economic behavior. The particulars may vary, but competition for limited resources remains a constant. Need as well as greed have followed us to this day, and the rewards of wealth still await those wise enough to recognize this deep thrumming of our common pulse.