Just a decade away now.

That's progress, if fusion is always only 10 years away now! The running joke used to be that it was always 30 years away.

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adrianN an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Fusion is a number of dollars away, not years. It gets almost no funding because it’sa science and engineering experiment that most likely will not lead to economically viable power plants in a market dominated by renewables.

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mrroper 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

So just like AI?

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ashirviskas 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Nah, it's a decade away from *now*.

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dwd an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Now now or Just now?

* I've worked with too many Sth Africans.

	▲	HenryMulligan 17 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		For those of us who aren't familiar, what is the difference?

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blitzar 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

nahhh, definately from *now* though - 100% this time

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api 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

… and like fusion it will be a decade away, a decade away, a decade away, six months away, then we have it.

The “decade away” phenomenon comes from the fact that it’s basically impossible to time estimate innovation.

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gerdesj 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I went to school in Oxfordshire in the '80s. Some visiting profs from JET joked that fusion was 25 years away then.

	▲	cbg0 an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Back then things were centered around "can we even do this?" and now it's more of "how do we keep this running more than 5 minutes?".

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meltyness 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

... and room temperature superconductors! If only we could sort out the feasibility, interdependencies, and priorities, but we just don't know, or well, I just don't know haha.