I'm sure we are all well aware of the benefits of oil outside of just 'fuel' for transportation, but lets not kid ourselves. If there is a viable way to fuel our transportation with something other than an oil based product, Alberta is completely screwed.
I don't see it as being a sudden change though. The cost-benefit factor has to exist too, and its not like a fusion reactor will come cheap.
Obviously a bunker loaded with canned goods, and a whole bunch of hamsters for power generation (until you can get hold of a miniature fusion-powered generator).
It powers my flux capacitor, but my Delorean still requires gasoline....
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Major scientific breakthroughs lead to more breakthroughs. My hope is that it could be done in a period of peace, which unfortunately is not something mankind has a good track record in. When you think about it, the USA is the world's largest consumer of energy. Fusion would end America's dependency on foreign oil. The countries who supply that energy will be kinda screwed, including Canada to some degree.
The USA, I think, exited 2012 as the world's second largest producer of oil and its dependence on foreign oil is shrinking after peaking in 2005.
The USA is actually a net exporter of all petroleum products.
Fusion is cool but it would take a long, long time to turn the petroleum ship onto the rocks.
Cowperson
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And according to the latest climate change thread on here, we only have 16 years till we're screwed, so might as well burn it all to the ground and have our fun.
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Ignoring the short term downturn or total collapse of our provincial economy, the benefit to our species/planet on a whole with unlimited clean energy is just to amazing not to fantasize about it.
I hadn't even thought about the desalinization aspect of it, and I'm sure there are other applications that have the potential to improve the entire planets quality of life. Hell it could change the entire mindset of our species... I'm not so pie in the sky delusional to think that we'd all join hands and sing Kumbayah around the fire, but with limitless energy it'd give us one less thing to kill each other over.
This is all based on if this technology was introduced properly.
Ignoring the short term downturn or total collapse of our provincial economy, the benefit to our species/planet on a whole with unlimited clean energy is just to amazing not to fantasize about it.
I hadn't even thought about the desalinization aspect of it, and I'm sure there are other applications that have the potential to improve the entire planets quality of life. Hell it could change the entire mindset of our species... I'm not so pie in the sky delusional to think that we'd all join hands and sing Kumbayah around the fire, but with limitless energy it'd give us one less thing to kill each other over.
This is all based on if this technology was introduced properly.
Problem is human beings are greedy,countries are greedy and a tonne of economy's depend on oil. A country like Russia would crumble without oil, how long before someones twitch muscles start throwing around a few of their 16,000 nukes.
This kind of technology would have to be controlled and phased in very very slowly, problem is humans also can't keep anything under wraps.
The thing is that the upside of it might offset the downside. Why do countries need money? To provide for their populations, well this would let them do that without money. Why do they need a militarily? To protect their resources. Who will want their resources when they have their own cheap limitless energy?
I think to reduce the impact you have to make them for all countries and push them out evenly.
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Chances are the technology would be used in the military first to give the US an even bigger advantage. From there it MIGHT slowly be added to the civilian world.
Question you have to ask, say in 20 years the US has completely switched from coal to natural gas, and with good prices everything is humming right along. Given the inevitable expensive price tag of a fusion reactor for both electricity generation and transportation, what exactly will motivate the US, or any other 1st world country to introduce the technology on a global scale?
Unless the technology is SO simple that anyone can build it(which it won't be for a LONG time).....I don't think it will 'change the world' the way everyone is thinking.
If the US is the first country to come up with it, they will introduce it throughout the military, and keep companies like Lockheed from selling it to anyone else.
The plan was to choose a middle-aged couple because their health and fertility would be less affected by the radiation they would be exposed to during such a long space mission.
I thought one of the "main" issues with a Mars mission is that the amount of radiation that people would be exposed to on the journey would be a little more severe than just a lowered sperm count. I read that the shielding required would make the craft unrealistically large given current tech.
Of course 500+ days cooped up with a wife/husband, radiation killing them is probably the least likely cause of death. A year and a half of "what's wrong honey?" "NOTHING!!!" ... yeah it'd be murder/suicide.
Scientists have unearthed extraordinarily preserved fossils of a 520-million-year-old sea creature, one of the earliest animal fossils ever found, according to a new study.
Astronomers have conclusively measured the spin of a black hole for the first time by detecting the mind-bending relativistic effects that warp space-time at the very edge of its event horizon -- the point of no return, beyond which even light cannot escape.
In an effort to make meat production more humane, alleviate hunger and help curb global warming, Dutch researchers have developed a way to grow edible meat in the laboratory from the stem cells of pigs. Although the lab-grown strips of meat don't yet taste or look much like pork (researchers say it has the consistency and feel of scallop), the ramifications for the new technology on the world's food supply could be significant.
Jokes aside, this is really interesting. Personally I'm not very worried about the healthiness of such "meat", and knowing the miracles that the food industry can do with "meat-like products", I see potential for genuine large scale meat production this way within my lifetime. Not necessarily for "bacon", but sausages, minced meat etc.
Jokes aside, this is really interesting. Personally I'm not very worried about the healthiness of such "meat", and knowing the miracles that the food industry can do with "meat-like products", I see potential for genuine large scale meat production this way within my lifetime. Not necessarily for "bacon", but sausages, minced meat etc.
Cue the extinction of cows.
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In an effort to make meat production more humane, alleviate hunger and help curb global warming, Dutch researchers have developed a way to grow edible meat in the laboratory from the stem cells of pigs. Although the lab-grown strips of meat don't yet taste or look much like pork (researchers say it has the consistency and feel of scallop), the ramifications for the new technology on the world's food supply could be significant.
.
This is old news. The scientists on "Better Off Ted" did this a couple of years ago.
Cowperson
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Dear Lord, help me to be the kind of person my dog thinks I am. - Anonymous
