Dejected 55
Visionary
- May 7, 2025
- 2,391
I know, this seems random... and it is... but randomly I think now and again... there is this big deal made of how we want to create sustainable/containable nuclear fusion reactions for power and whatnot. And the struggle has been going on for decades...
But...
We are literally orbiting a sustained nuclear fusion reaction (the Sun) and we squander the power available to us from it. And I'm not just talking about the fight against solar power technology. I think there ought to be better options IF we tried.
Consider... there is all the hubbub about nuclear fusion. Okay, say tomorrow they figured it out and had a nuclear fusion reaction that sustained and was containable. Then what? What is their plan to convert that energy from the reaction to usable energy for us here on Earth? Really think about that... because it's kind of important. Just about any method by which they would intend to capture the energy from that reaction and use it to produce usable energy for us here... ought to be adaptable to use TODAY for the energy pouring out of our Sun. But we are not doing a good job of that at all.
I get the attraction to mini nuclear fusion reactions in terms of portable power... cool.. not just here but for space exploration and such... but, you know, in the meantime we could be perfecting the capture and use of available energy from a large nearby sustained nuclear fusion reaction so that by the time we figure out how to make smaller/local ones, we have reliable ways to efficiently adapt and use that power.
But... the best we have are the horribly inefficient solar panels that are very expensive. I'm not knocking solar cell development. I'm just saying the astonishing lack of development of alternative ways to use the Sun's energy is holding us back. Maybe solar cells one day can be a lot more efficient and cheaper to produce... but until then... fucking plants are doing a better job of using the Sun's energy than we are.
But...
We are literally orbiting a sustained nuclear fusion reaction (the Sun) and we squander the power available to us from it. And I'm not just talking about the fight against solar power technology. I think there ought to be better options IF we tried.
Consider... there is all the hubbub about nuclear fusion. Okay, say tomorrow they figured it out and had a nuclear fusion reaction that sustained and was containable. Then what? What is their plan to convert that energy from the reaction to usable energy for us here on Earth? Really think about that... because it's kind of important. Just about any method by which they would intend to capture the energy from that reaction and use it to produce usable energy for us here... ought to be adaptable to use TODAY for the energy pouring out of our Sun. But we are not doing a good job of that at all.
I get the attraction to mini nuclear fusion reactions in terms of portable power... cool.. not just here but for space exploration and such... but, you know, in the meantime we could be perfecting the capture and use of available energy from a large nearby sustained nuclear fusion reaction so that by the time we figure out how to make smaller/local ones, we have reliable ways to efficiently adapt and use that power.
But... the best we have are the horribly inefficient solar panels that are very expensive. I'm not knocking solar cell development. I'm just saying the astonishing lack of development of alternative ways to use the Sun's energy is holding us back. Maybe solar cells one day can be a lot more efficient and cheaper to produce... but until then... fucking plants are doing a better job of using the Sun's energy than we are.
