The power of the sun, on the tip of your pencil Options

[impala454]

Saw this thing on HistoryHD last night. Pretty insane. They said that in the billionth of a second that they create a fusion reaction, during that time, they are producing 1000x more power than the entire earth is using in that same time frame. This is the future people.

https://lasers.llnl.gov/

[Hartmann]

Interesting. I briefly looked through it but didn't see anything on how they planned to control the reaction after the lasers ignite it.

[impala454]

this tells about it:
https://lasers.llnl.gov/programs/nif/how_ni...get_chamber.php

Numerous safety systems are being incorporated into NIF to assure that all experiments can be safely carried out. The neutrons, X-rays and gamma rays generated in a shot can be harmful if not properly controlled. Two-meter-thick concrete walls and doors encase the target bay in a protective shield and absorb most of the emitted radiation energy. Walls of adjacent areas further reduce the energy to safe levels for workers.


Although NIF will use very small amounts of tritium in its targets, a tritium processing system is being installed to contain this material and provide a mechanism for its safe disposal. This filter system extracts tritium from the air that has entered the target chamber and deposits it into containers for safe removal.
Very small amounts of tritium, deuterium, beryllium and heavy elements are contained in typical targets, and their use must also be strictly controlled. Several subsystems are being implemented to monitor, control, clean up and properly dispose of all components which may have traces of these materials deposited on them after an experiment.

recommend reading that whole page though, every interesting.

[pebkac]

That's pretty cool.

[Seeker]

A power plant could use this to generate energy and put it out on the grid, but it's not the future.

In the future everyone will be living OFF the grid and generating their own power at home either through Solar energy or some other method. Everyone will have a miniature power-plant in/on their home, and I don't see this being mass-marketed like I do Solar energy.

[impala454]

That would be cool too. As soon as they have solar panels that will give me 200A service I'm in. Or hell, just have them finish up this fusion stuff, and then miniaturize it

[rabble]

A power plant could use this to generate energy and put it out on the grid, but it's not the future.

In the future everyone will be living OFF the grid and generating their own power at home either through Solar energy or some other method. Everyone will have a miniature power-plant in/on their home, and I don't see this being mass-marketed like I do Solar energy.

That's a stupid utopian dream when you consider that coal fired plant down the way could be replaced with a "mini-sun" plant with no major rework to the electrical system or direct cost to the consumer in the form of reworking each individual home.

I hate to break the news, but in the future, everyone is going to be just as cheap and lazy as they are now, unless some massive event happens that forces people to live off-grid then there is no reason to believe people will change.

Edit: and honestly, I don't want my inept illegal immigrant neighbors to have any sort of powerplant in their house. Nothing like a huge unmaintained fire hazard barely chugging along next door to really make me feel safe.

[FORSAKENR320]

IN THE FUTURE WE WILL BE DAMN GREATFUL WE HAVE 4 WALLS AND A FIRE TO COOK OUR CANNED SPAM ON, AND WE WILL ALL BE DAMN GREATFUL THAT BRANDON HOBGOOD SAVED US ALL FROM CERTAIN DEATH!

[Seeker]

That would be cool too. As soon as they have solar panels that will give me 200A service I'm in. Or hell, just have them finish up this fusion stuff, and then miniaturize it

Yeah either way. And solar panels are getting cheaper and more efficient by the month. It's almost at the verge of being fit for mass adoption.

[Seeker]

That's a stupid utopian dream when you consider that coal fired plant down the way could be replaced with a "mini-sun" plant with no major rework to the electrical system or direct cost to the consumer in the form of reworking each individual home.

I hate to break the news, but in the future, everyone is going to be just as cheap and lazy as they are now, unless some massive event happens that forces people to live off-grid then there is no reason to believe people will change.

Edit: and honestly, I don't want my inept illegal immigrant neighbors to have any sort of powerplant in their house. Nothing like a huge unmaintained fire hazard barely chugging along next door to really make me feel safe.

Being a slave to the power company and paying 150 bucks a month like usual, or coughing up 10k for a solar panel set-up and never paying electricity bills again... I think most sane people would choose the solar panels.

Thanks for playing though.

I remember a time when AT&T thought that no one would have a personal PC in their own home and instead would farm out their computing needs to massive supercomputers housed by AT&T on a "computing grid"... and we all know how well that worked out. Idiot.

[Spectatrix]

Screw all that, we just need to harness the power of pistol shrimp!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKPrGxB1Kzc

[Divergent Realit...]

Screw all that, we just need to harness the power of pistol shrimp!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKPrGxB1Kzc

pistol shrimp.

the assassin of the animal kingdom.

more deadly than the dreaded stingray.

uglier than the chunder inducing lungfish.

more lopsided than a swollen testicle after a heavy session of CBT.

[Seeker]

Haha, how could I have never heard of those before?

[impala454]

I love this comment on the vid:

shrimp's shooting his pistol sideways, wat a thug

[Spectatrix]

Haha, how could I have never heard of those before?

Because they are like the ninja. Very secretive and very deadly.