Re:The real social implications of fusion power.
on
The Quest For Fusion
·
· Score: 2
You're right that everyone will benefit from this, but we're going to benefit the most. Think of how much more efficient our developed economies will be comparted to thirdworld nations still relying on fossil fuels.
And not all third-world nations have these fuels in their soil.
New technology doesn't automagically make the world better, and fusion isn't going to be any different. All in all, if adapted all over North America, it's going reduce emissions, stop some kinds of resource extraction, make energy much cheaper.
And not every sector will be able to switch to fusion power right away. Transportion already accounts for the bulkshare of fossil fuel consumption, and it will be along time before everyone is driving electric cars (just because of the infrastructure changes needed to be made... the cars would need someplace to charge, which requires some sort of industry adoption of electric cars.)
But who knows, maybe in process of discovering that free market economies are disasterous, we'll all learn how to live and work together, poverty and environmental degradation will be eliminated, and fusion will be one of the tools.
Re:The real social implications of fusion power.
on
The Quest For Fusion
·
· Score: 1
And that would be great, but it's not likely to happen. Nobody is just going to give power away power nations.
If anything, they will sell the excess energy to other nations, which has more potential to create a kind of energy oligopoly of developed nations with even more leverage over poorer states.
I know I'm being pretty pessimistic here, but on the bright side, discussion of any alternative energy source is great. Infact, third world countries in Africa and the Middle East (which incidently is where a lot of our energy comes from now in a pre-fusion world) could benefit immensely from solar power in their very sunny climates.
And perhaps the pessimism is necessary right from the start, to remind us that developing a new technology won't save the world.
Implementing a new technology properly could do it though...
The real social implications of fusion power.
on
The Quest For Fusion
·
· Score: 3
It seems as though fusion power is revered as some sort of force that could eliminate the gaps between haves and have-nots. Cheap, unlimited power would bring the third world into the first world, and we could all be one world together.
Sure, I guess this is technically feasible, but really, fusion isn't going to be that cheap... one of them fandangled "Z-Machines" is still going to cost a bundle. The initial investment to give any region fusion power will be enough to keep it out of reach from third world nations for a long time.
Look how the pre-initial costs (research) are being resisted by the gov't of the USA (the richest nation in the world).
Fusion power would be a wonderful advance for the whole world, but to make it accessible for the whole world, there's more to consider than just the technology. We have to start re-thinking third world debt (ie. loaning them more money is not the solution) and reconsidering free-trade in favour of fair-trade.
I guess, if you look at it in a certain light, this could be analogous to a government putting regulations and tariffs on commerce and trade. Of course, according to PR, they're doing it for the good of the citizens (ebay customers) but everybody knows they're just impeding trade to get their cut of the buck.
With all the buzz and hype on peer to peer, I wonder how long it will be before someone develops a really cool, decentralized, peer2peer auction forum network. I suppose encryption, digital signing and PGP-style "webs of trust" could be developed, and there would be no "government" trying to take it's share of the pie.
You can call it wild-eyed dreaming, but I prefer the term "prior art." Now that I've mentioned it publically, it should be difficult to patent, no?
It would be great. It could be really decentralized like Gnutella (or maybe OpenNAP's ircd based model, because it's probably better) and each entity could have their rating dependent on other people's transaction approval.
Or maybe I'm just really stoned... bomb weed, I tell ya...;)
Jeremy McNaughton
Slashdot Mirror
And not all third-world nations have these fuels in their soil.
New technology doesn't automagically make the world better, and fusion isn't going to be any different. All in all, if adapted all over North America, it's going reduce emissions, stop some kinds of resource extraction, make energy much cheaper.
And not every sector will be able to switch to fusion power right away. Transportion already accounts for the bulkshare of fossil fuel consumption, and it will be along time before everyone is driving electric cars (just because of the infrastructure changes needed to be made... the cars would need someplace to charge, which requires some sort of industry adoption of electric cars.)
But who knows, maybe in process of discovering that free market economies are disasterous, we'll all learn how to live and work together, poverty and environmental degradation will be eliminated, and fusion will be one of the tools.
If anything, they will sell the excess energy to other nations, which has more potential to create a kind of energy oligopoly of developed nations with even more leverage over poorer states.
I know I'm being pretty pessimistic here, but on the bright side, discussion of any alternative energy source is great. Infact, third world countries in Africa and the Middle East (which incidently is where a lot of our energy comes from now in a pre-fusion world) could benefit immensely from solar power in their very sunny climates.
And perhaps the pessimism is necessary right from the start, to remind us that developing a new technology won't save the world.
Implementing a new technology properly could do it though...
Sure, I guess this is technically feasible, but really, fusion isn't going to be that cheap... one of them fandangled "Z-Machines" is still going to cost a bundle. The initial investment to give any region fusion power will be enough to keep it out of reach from third world nations for a long time.
Look how the pre-initial costs (research) are being resisted by the gov't of the USA (the richest nation in the world).
Fusion power would be a wonderful advance for the whole world, but to make it accessible for the whole world, there's more to consider than just the technology. We have to start re-thinking third world debt (ie. loaning them more money is not the solution) and reconsidering free-trade in favour of fair-trade.
Only then will we be One World.
Jeremy McNaughton