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[Max White]

Honestly, I don't actually see us ever reaching the golden age of space travel. I know this sounds surprising to people, but I honestly think we may never colonize another planet beyond maybe a scientific research station.

Looking at how technology is heading these days, it seems more and more likely that we will eventually all plug ourselves into servers in a fashion similar to The Matrix, and live out the rest of earths life span living like gods of our own virtual world, before our planet is consumed by a dying sun. The Fermi Paradox would seem to indicate this is a more common path than space exploration.

With this in mind, we have no need for a Dyson sphere. All we need is enough green, renewable energy to power our computers, provide some sort of life support, possibly handle human reproduction and maintain a crew of drones to make repairs. We can get all the energy for that on earth.

[MonkeyHead]

In that case, nothing would stop us applying the same technologies in launching a small probe with a few dozen minds running on it, or many such probes, contravening the Fermi paradox.

[Max White]

That would assume we develop our space technology to that point before we all just plug ourselves in. Once every human is living a virtual life without concern for the outside world, all science and engineering comes to an abrupt end. Relative to nanotechnology, neurology, computing, genetics, all the kinds of fields required, our developments in human space travel is pretty much standing still.

But regardless, a life boat sent into space of people in a virtual world still doesn't require a Dyson sphere.

[Helgoland]

Greenpeace on fusion.
They seem less and less likeable to me.

[Max White]

Spokesperson Bridget Woodman said: "Nuclear fusion has all the problems of nuclear power, including producing nuclear waste and the risks of a nuclear accident."

... Better not breath in, lest you inhale some of that nuclear waste, you carbon based fool!

[MonkeyHead]

Greenpeace lying to push thier own agenda? Gee, that never happens!

[Frumple]

Once every human is living a virtual life without concern for the outside world, all science and engineering comes to an abrupt end.

That... is a hell of a stretch. Also a thing that just won't happen. There's always going to be some portion of our population pushing the limits of science and engineering, because they're interesting problems and our species flipping thrives on interesting problems. VR hookup, at most, just means most of the fieldwork would be done by non-humans (drones, etc.).

[palsch]

Btw, the sun is practically a cold fusion engine, temperatures in the core are very low when compared to human fusion installations.

While this is true, it's because the sun can be far less efficient than human fusion needs to be.

The solar core has a power density of around 276.5 Wm^-3. ITER, the most ambitious and large fusion reactor so far planned which has the (hopefully slim) potential to be too big to work, is only 840 m³, with the plasma volume only taking up 100 m³. If we were working with reactions on the order of solar fusion we would only seen a 27,650 W power output. ITER is designed for 500 MW. That's an 18,000 fold difference.


As far as cold fusion goes, actual cold fusion is simple impossible. You need to overcome the coulomb barrier between nuclei; the electromagnetic repulsion of the two positive ions you are trying to fuse. That requires at least the atoms that are being fused to be 'hot', or moving fast enough to break through that energy barrier.

Most of the seemingly plausible models of cold fusions are actually variations on inertially confined fusion, where the ions are locally given a high inertia by rapidly compressing a sample of material. The last claim that actually got attention from physicists was so-called bubble fusion, based on the relatively poorly understood sonoluminescence. We actually had an option to do an undergraduate report on the topic back in about 2007/8.

[Helgoland]

Also Muon fusion, which sadly suffers from muons being too expensive to produce.

[Strife26]

All energy on Earth ultimately comes from the sun, Max. The question you should be asking yourself is whether you want to build a Dyson sphere or continue on the creation of Earthly fusion generators, because that would be the fair comparison.

Geothermal, heating from the decay of radioactive material, and let's say other stars just because I really want three negations.

[Max White]

One could argue that our sun provides geothermal, although indirectly. It was the gravitational well that gave earth its dust cloud cradle. No sun, no earth. No earth, no seismic pressure to produce heat. The decay of atoms, however, can be attributed to celestial ghosts, rather than our own living, breathing ball of solar gravity.

[kingfisher1112]

Greenpeace on fusion.
They seem less and less likeable to me.

I always hated Greenpeace. Just another stupid lobbying group appearing likeable, but they really aren't. Something organised by someone or some subsidiary of theirs trashed a GMO research facility in Australia wrecking over 8 years of research.

[GlyphGryph]

Greenpeace is a large and diverse organization. Some of the earlier members have left in disgust, but there's still some good they do sometimes - but it's got a lot of troglodytes in it too. The opposition to fusion comes as no surprise, really.

[kingfisher1112]

Greenpeace is a large and diverse organization. Some of the earlier members have left in disgust, but there's still some good they do sometimes - but it's got a lot of troglodytes in it too. The opposition to fusion comes as no surprise, really.

I think that's the same with a lot of lobby groups... They still do the thing, just not as well and they're losing their way.

[Skyrunner]

That article was fun to read.

Greenpeace on fusion.
They seem less and less likeable to me.

I always hated Greenpeace. Just another stupid lobbying group appearing likeable, but they really aren't. Something organised by someone or some subsidiary of theirs trashed a GMO research facility in Australia wrecking over 8 years of research.