tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8282587.post4124344685991606115..comments2024-03-19T01:48:39.709+00:00Comments on Power and Control: Standardizing Fusion Test ReactorsM. Simonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09508934110558197375noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8282587.post-3240585313740987512008-05-14T22:12:00.000+00:002008-05-14T22:12:00.000+00:00A little difficulty is a sweet thing if offered co...A little difficulty is a sweet thing if offered constructively.<BR/><BR/>There are a few things that need to be accomplished.<BR/><BR/>1. Get people used to fusion<BR/>2. Put more minds and hands to work on the project. The amount of work ahead is daunting even in the case of success of a power production machine and we are not there yet. Especially if p-B11 fusion is contemplated.<BR/>3. Have trained cadre in case of success in power generation<BR/>4. Provide an income stream between government contracts.<BR/><BR/>The start up money would be for design of a production test reactor and inventory. <BR/><BR/>At this point my function would be as a go between to grease the ways. I have no financial interest in any of this. That could change.<BR/><BR/>There is already a home brew fusion club. <BR/><BR/><A HREF="http://www.fusor.net/board/index.php?site=fusor&bn=" REL="nofollow">Fusor.Net</A><BR/><BR/>I was in on the early days of computing (Jan '75) and all those machines would do was blink the front panel lights if you could figure out how to program them and enter the program from the front panel switches. People did it because they loved it.M. Simonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09508934110558197375noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8282587.post-33613904129515613492008-05-14T18:32:00.000+00:002008-05-14T18:32:00.000+00:00I'm not sure I get it; the budgets involved are fa...I'm not sure I get it; the budgets involved are fairly small for commercial startups, although rather big for academic research. $100K is trivial for a Silicon Valley startup; it's less than a single decently-paid engineer of any kind.<BR/><BR/>If anything, the biggest problem with this sort of research is you want to have "patient money" funding it, which would be satisfied with a monetization event several years down the road. This sort of thing probably wouldn't be accelerated much by lots of funding thrown at a single team.<BR/><BR/>The biggest problem with attempting to appeal to tinkerers of the Homebrew Computer Club variety is that a computer (or car, etc) does interesting things by itself, while this thing either works or it doesn't, and isn't interesting in a practical way until it does work. Sure, if you're into physics and such, a homebrew Polywell is probably infinitely fascinating, but it won't play games or go fast the way computers or cars could.<BR/><BR/>I'm not trying to be difficult; I've on my fourth Silicon Valley startups (none a homerun, but a couple of base hits so far) and devil's advocates are very useful early on.Foobaristahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17695839524769425977noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8282587.post-32646807396857744912008-05-14T02:26:00.000+00:002008-05-14T02:26:00.000+00:00Dr K Hooper thinks the same: use available funding...Dr K Hooper thinks the same: use available funding from Grant pools, to set up 4-500 plug-n-play Polywell Units; amass, analyze, correlate and collate data; JUMP START the next round, which could well be:<BR/><BR/>"Power to the People!"Karridinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13896934615468594744noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8282587.post-70317817030279155832008-05-13T21:29:00.000+00:002008-05-13T21:29:00.000+00:00Why all the focus on government and academia?Becau...<I>Why all the focus on government and academia?</I><BR/><BR/>Because of the size of the budgets required.<BR/><BR/><I>Why not do a "Linux distro" approach and let a bunch of commercial startups grab the tech, have some sort of standard commercialization deal that comes with the kit, and let investors hire teams and let them have a go at it?</I><BR/><BR/>That is my idea for the lower cost range products $10K - $100K. <BR/><BR/>You can call me Torvald.<BR/><BR/><I>I suppose you're wanting some sort of open-source networking effect, but this rarely works with nonstandard, cutting-edge technologies, especially if they require significant capital investment - which this will.</I><BR/><BR/>I was in on the early days of computing. Significant $$$ (in todays dollarettes about $10K) was required to make contributions within about 2 or 3 years of the great inflation (Jan 1975).<BR/><BR/><I>And if there's a group of startups working on Polywell, a group of people will end up moving between them, developing organizational memory.</I><BR/><BR/>Yep.<BR/><BR/>I want to jump start the whole thing. Dr. Nebel is thinking the same way.M. Simonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09508934110558197375noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8282587.post-13487932438156725432008-05-13T21:14:00.000+00:002008-05-13T21:14:00.000+00:00Why all the focus on government and academia?Why n...Why all the focus on government and academia?<BR/><BR/>Why not do a "Linux distro" approach and let a bunch of commercial startups grab the tech, have some sort of standard commercialization deal that comes with the kit, and let investors hire teams and let them have a go at it?<BR/><BR/>I suppose you're wanting some sort of open-source networking effect, but this rarely works with nonstandard, cutting-edge technologies, especially if they require significant capital investment - which this will. And if there's a group of startups working on Polywell, a group of people will end up moving between them, developing organizational memory.Foobaristahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17695839524769425977noreply@blogger.com