It always feels like some form of VR tech comes out with some sort of fanfare and with a promise it will take over the world, but it never does.

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[–] 40 points 9 months ago (7 children)

The big one would be viable nuclear fusion, we've been trying to figure it out and spending money on it for like 80 years now.

That being said, there's actually a lot of verified progress on it lately by reputable organizations and international teams.

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  • [–] 14 points 9 months ago (3 children)

    It's only 30 years away!

    Just like it was 30 years ago.

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  • [–] 4 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    I've seen a road map at the start of iter which was actually more. 30 years to get a stable exo energetic plasma, then 30 years to build a demonstrator able to produce electricity, and then 30 years to have industrialised fusion plant.

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago (1 child)

    As far as i know they can get it working in small scale, in labs

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago

    Essentially yes, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusion_power#2020s

    https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/articles/helion-begins-work-on-fusion-power-plant One of the commercial entities did start building a plant last year, not particularly large (only 50 MW) with an agreement to power a Microsoft datacenter, and billions in funding from government and private sources.

    Hard to tell for real though because the level of secrecy around this is insanity and the US Military is heavily involved in not just this, but pretty much every similar organization.

    I would not be surprised if we hear nothing, or see them "failing", even if some of these designs are fully functional already.

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago

    In its defence, that assumed it was properly funded. Its actual funding was very limited.

    I believe most of the critical problems have been solved. The only major one left is keeping the reactor walls stable. They have a tendency to transmute, which causes multiple problems.

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