Cheap, _limitless_ energy from fusion could solve almost every geopolitical/environmental issue we face today. Europe is acutely aware of this at the moment and it's why China and America are investing mega bucks. We will eventually run out of finite energy sources. Even if we do capture the max capacity possible from renewables with 100% efficiency, our energy consumption rates increasing at current rates will eventually exceed this max capacity. Those rates are accelerating. We really have no choice.
There is zero reason to assume that fusion power will ever be the cheapest source of energy. At the very least, you have to deal with a sizeable vacuum chamber, big magnets to control the plasma and massive neutron flux (turning your fusion plant into radioactive waste over time), none of which is cheap.
I'd say limitless energy from fusion plants is about as likely as e-scooters getting replaced by hoverboards. Maybe next millenium.
That date means nothing though. We have yet to figure out how to run a fusion reactor for any meaningful period of time and we haven't figured out how to do it profitably.
Setting a date for when one opens is just a pipe dream, they don't know how to get there yet.
> I like fusion, really. I’ve talked to some of luminaries that work in the field, they’re great people. I love the technology and the physics behind it.
> But fusion as a power source is never going to happen. Not because it can’t, because it won’t. Because no matter how hard you try, it’s always going to cost more than the solutions we already have.
Deepmind are working on solving the plasma control issue at the moment, I suspect they're probably using a bit of AI.... and I wouldn't put it past them to crack it.
This is the thing with AI: We can always come up with a new architecture with different inputs & outputs to solve lots of problems that couldn't be solved before.
People equating AI with other single-problem-solving technologies are clearly not seeing the bigger picture.
Time travel was the most important invention of the 1800s too, but that goes to show how bad resolving the temporal paradox issue is, now that entire history is gone.
but people say that AI will spit out that fusion reactor, ergo AI investment is prior in the ordo investimendi or whatever it would be called (by an AI)
Why would it be too cheap to meter? You're still heating up water and putting it through a turbine. We've been doing that for ages (just different sources of energy for the heating up part) and we still meter energy because these things cost money and need lots of maintenance.
As we have more and more solars, we see rises for being connected to the grid more and more while electricity stays relatively cheap. Fusion won't change that, somebody has to pay for the guy reconnecting cables after a storm
The maximum possible benefit of fusion (aside from the science gained in the attempt) is cheap energy.
We'll get very cheap energy just by massively rolling out existing solar panels (maybe some at sea), and other renewables, HVDC and batteries/storage.
Fusion is almost certain to be uneconomical in comparison if it's even feasible technically.
AI, is already dramtically impacting some fields, including science (eg deepfold), and AGI would be a step-change.