Over the past few weeks we've been bombarded with all sorts of news, as we always are: political goings-on, economic crises, scandals, celebrity shenanigans, sports . . . and it all seems terribly important and everyone feels it necessary to let the world know what they think via Twitter and Facebook.
Meanwhile there's this: fusion experiments that release more energy than they consume.
Now I know this doesn't mean fusion power has finally arrived. It will doubtless take years or decades more before fusion power is practical.
But take the long view. In a hundred years, will 2013 be the date people give as the answer to trivia questions about "when was fusion power invented?" Is that the event of this year that will be remembered down the generations?
And all the stuff we're so passionate about right now, these crises and scandals and outrages, will be as obscure as the Great Bangor Fire of 1911 or the Panic of 1907.
Which raises the question: why are we so passionate? None of those things will be remembered. Do you think anyone will care about the "Government shutdown" in ten years? Hell, will anyone remember it in ten weeks?
Meanwhile some guys at Livermore with a laser may have done the most important thing this year. Why aren't you passionate about that?
With these kind of advances we surely can't be more than 20 years away from fusion power.
Just like when I was a kid.
Posted by: Chuk Goodin | 10/30/2013 at 04:04 PM