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Comment by forgot_user1234 | Hacker News Reader

DISAGREE on this. Real innovation happens bottoms up. co-operation at national level is all a spectacle.

I am used to hearing this from software engineers who are secure in the knowledge that when they want to try out a concept, hardware time to do so will be cheap and readily available. At some point, you are going to have to take all of your shiny materials science and turbulence simulations, and actually build a piece of apparatus to test it out on the scale that your chosen application (in this case, power generation) will require. The universe is under no obligation to make sure that it will cost less than billions to do so; hence ITER.

Having said that, there's been a lot of extremely promising recent progress in high field superconductors and fusion designs based on them (MIT ARC, Tokamak Energy, etc) that could shrink the necessary scale for a working reactor, so perhaps it will turn out we're lucky with the physics on this one after all.

you have answered your own question. cool.

You might be right on this one. I'm a bit curious if any other HN-reader is aware of the private fusion project (aka the SAFIRE project) which is now run by the company Aureon Energy (https://aureon.ca/). I do highly recommend watching the video (also available on the legacy page https://safireproject.com/) for the video recording of the experiments. It's not yet quite mainstream physics but we have to remember that once upon the time the mainstream physics people didn't think that heavier-than-air flying machines are possible while nowadays they have wasted countless billions on their fusion experiments and achieved close to nothing.

> we have to remember that once upon the time the mainstream physics people didn't think that heavier-than-air flying machines are possible while nowadays they have wasted countless billions on their fusion experiments and achieved close to nothing

Challenging authority gets you cool-guy points, but does nothing for actual understanding. “The experts don’t know what they’re talking about and are blinded by tribalism” is rhetoric of the 20th century. Physics has moved on.

So you say. Though I don't see any evidence humanity as a whole has moved past groupthink. But yeah, I might be wrong about SAFIRE, as I haven't done any fusion experiments myself, just read a bit of research.

I work with fusion researchers. We regularly talk about non-mainstream designs and unexplored areas of physics. It’s a lot of fun. The mainstream is mainstream because it’s what works, not because that’s what our fathers built. The theoretical physicists are actively working on a dozen empirical models. They throw out what they need to. No one’s saying “don’t fund alternatives”. Fund alternatives. Show that they work. They haven’t in the past, but if one did the most excited people will be the mainstream fusion researchers.

Hey, I'd really appreciate it if you were to bring up my design next time you're chatting about new and different designs.

This one is completely new, very simple, and in great need of more eyes

I have a website at http://www.ddprofusion.com

  “The experts don’t know what they’re talking about and are blinded by tribalism” is rhetoric of the 20th century.

How would you describe the medical abuses of the last century? e.g. lobotomies to cure mental conditions, refusal of surgeons to wash hands etc.

Have scientists moved on from tribalism?

I said physics has moved on.

Also, if experimental surgeries were never attempted in the 20th century the quality and length of our lives, and potentially trillions of future human lives, would be nasty, brutish, and short. Not all attempts had a sound basis and I don’t defend them. I do say the good of the total if 20th century experimental surgeries far outweighs the bad. Importantly, we are able to learn from our mistakes quickly. It took centuries to stop using the breaking wheel. It took less than a lifetime to stop lobotomies.

I’m struggling to understand your point though. Do doctors still practice lobotomies and refuse to wash hands, or have they cast aside their tribalism and make decisions based on science?

Kind of ironic to post this on the web, given it's history.

> Kind of ironic to post this on the web, given it's history.

it's funny because you think it happened because tim berners lee and CERN. I think, it happened because arpanet and universities connecting with each other.

Internet wasn't an organised effort. it was a bottoms up manifestation. Do i need to remind you what CERN was actually supposed to do?

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