The Upside from Bussard IEC Fusion

Here is a post on advanced nanotechnology on the kinds of things (particularly space things) that would be enabled if they can prove it.

What excites me is all the things this technology can enable, and how far along the research is.  Not only could it get enough people and materials to the Moon, Mars, and Titan to get viable colonies started and finally get our foothold in space, but it is also the right solution to power them and keep them going.

The two most basic things in the economy are power and raw materials, from them everything follows.

Another post at the same blog gives a breakdown of how much oil is used, both in total terms and percentages of the total, by use.  The point to me is not so much that we need to reduce the amount of energy used; we need to leap ahead a generation or two on how we produce it.

Not only in terms of the environmental cost, but also in cost cost.  How much easier would it be to deal with global poverty if power becomes so cheap to produce that international charities set up big generators all over the globe?  Dealing with clean water and many issues become incredibly easier.  Not all problems, of course, but freeing people and resources from the issues that are solved to tackle the remaining ones is what progress is all about.

Comments

[M. Simon]

Here is a good place to get up to speed on the technology:

Easy Low Cost No Radiation Fusion
http://powerandcontrol.blogspot.com/2006/11/easy-low-cost-no-radiation-fusion.html