This post has been de-listed
It is no longer included in search results and normal feeds (front page, hot posts, subreddit posts, etc). It remains visible only via the author's post history.
In one of my favorite Alternate history shows For All Mankind, the first fusion reactor was created in 1986 and thanks to the discovery of a huge pocket of Helium-3 on the moon Nuclear Fusion technology develops more rapidly and it is more widely available than it is in the original timeline. And as a result, there is a decrease in fossil fuel consumption. However, it also resulted in a lot of workers in the fossil fuel industry getting laid off and after looking at another post it got me thinking.
Even if we do develop nuclear fusion technology, it's not going to be adopted overnight. We are going to come up with new infrastructure and logistics in order to make it all practical and if we ever evolve into a space faring civilization its only fair that we focus on colonizing parts of the solar system that have resources to help us sustain our fusion technology.
So what are the necessary infrastructure and logistics that we need to make this technology practical, and which parts of the solar system should we mine in order to sustain this technology? (Besides the Moon)
power distribution
The sexy part about fusion is that as far as Hank Dryrub and Joey Six-pack at the power station are concerned the fusion reactor is just a generic load you hook up to the grid.
What people often don't understand is that we've not switched off combustion because we're an evil¹ species we've not switched off combustion because a fire is an increeeeedibly adaptive process and things that aren't a fire or like a fire (ironically enough hydropower is pretty close) just act so much worse.
¹This is a major failing in science communication. People already on your side are going to feel like you're not doing enough and people who enjoy the benefits of the current system just feel like you're trying to take things. There's too little practicality in the energy conversation and it's needlessly alienating people who actually have similar interests.
How about we just use fission but like add some sick LED lights?
Subreddit
Post Details
- Posted
- 3 months ago
- Reddit URL
- View post on reddit.com
- External URL
- reddit.com/r/IsaacArthur...