[bsder]

The big problem is that we have funded fusion at "Fusion Never" levels.

Had we shoved as much money at fusion as we have at, say, horizontal drilling for liquified dinosaurs, we'd have fusion right now.

[pfdietz]

You have that backwards: the prospects for fusion looked so poor that there wasn't much stakeholder push for funding.

The argument "with funding, it will come" is cargo cult thinking, reversing cause and effect.

[jmpman]

Is that true of the Chinese?

[mayama]

Fission is pathway to nukes, so every nation with intention of building nukes invests in fission regardless of commercial viability. Fusion on the other hand is pure r&d project and may give bragging rights if a country gets it first. So even in China it is not priority.

[Detrytus]

Wait, isn't fusion also possibly applicable as a weapon? I mean, thermonuclear weapons exist today with fission bomb being the fuze, once we achieve fusion ignition can't we build thermonuclear bomb from it that would not need uranium/plutionium?

[arrosenberg]

If we could build such a device we would effectively have unlimited energy. At that point, why fight each other when we can colonize the galaxy?

[BobaFloutist]

Why are we fighting each other now? It's largely cultural and religious motivations, if we worked together as a planet we could get some really interesting things done.

[BirAdam]

Governments don’t fight because of religion or culture. They do it over power, resources, and material wealth.

[wruza]

“We” don’t have and don’t want to seriously fight each other. But it’s not “us” at the wheel. They have their own idea what we should do and until we get rid of them completely, your question will stay naive. This feature of our species was important for building civilization, but it will drag future generations down to the monkey bottom forever.

[bitmasher9]

Yes