January 1928: Dirac equation unifies quantum mechanics and special relativity

If our society were sane, rational, advanced, the headlines would be all about scientific and technological progress. The fusion power breakthrough of 2022 by Lawrence Livermore National Lab would still dominate the news. Large corporations would compete to create the first Star Trek replicator (at least for organic matter, food, etc) by advancements in nanofabrication. Politicians would debate R&D topics and strategy, figuring out which path leads to greater broad-sector economic progress.

One can dream. :) Instead, we have a society almost entirely dependent on many kinds of technology, and yet very few understand any of it, nor care to. Wonder how long this trend can persist until some sort of phase transition appears on the horizon.

Some many years ago some people collected some negative traits to describe the foibles of people. Unfortunately, these negatives seem to dominate much of the news:

Pride, Greed, Lust, Anger, Gluttony, Envy, Sloth.

If we could somehow dim the influence of these human traits, we might get closer to the world you described

We aren't spherical philosophers in a vacuum. We are emotional animals trying our best. This fact requires constant consideration and management lest it all come crumbling down.

> The fusion power breakthrough of 2022 by Lawrence Livermore National Lab would still dominate the news.

If our society were sane, rational, advanced, it would recognize that that "breakthrough" was a minor, arbitrary improvement in reaction efficiency, that realistically brings us no closer to commercially viable fusion power, and doesn't prove anything about the possibility of that.

That reaction still consumed something like 100 times the power that it produced, and the "power" that it produced was just heat energy, which would still entail losses when converted into usable form.

On top of that, the nature of the Livermore reaction is not one that's even intended or suitable for commercial power production.

At this point, we simply don't even know whether controlled, commercially viable fusion will ever be able to produce more power than it consumes. There's no guarantee that it will.

If you're not aware of what I'm referring to, this article is a starting point: "Why the nuclear fusion ‘net energy gain’ is more hype than breakthrough": https://whyy.org/segments/why-the-nuclear-fusion-net-energy-...

While this might all seem like an irrelevant aside to the point being made above, it's relevant because it shows how pervasive misinformation is, even when coming from supposedly scientific sources.

Alright, so we're spherical cow-philosophers... (jk, I like your point!)

The announcement was correct and precise. I am not sure what misinformation you are describing here.

Regarding your 100 more energy claim. It overlooks key facts about the NIF breakthrough. The fusion reaction itself achieved net energy gain, producing 3.15 MJ compared to 2.05 MJ of input laser energy - far from consuming "100 times the power it produced." While the total facility power usage was indeed higher due to laser inefficiencies, this misses the crucial scientific achievement. This was basically humanity's first controlled fusion reaction producing more energy than was directly input to the fuel. Dismissing this as a "minor, arbitrary improvement" understates its significance. This wasn't just about efficiency metrics - it demonstrated fusion ignition was possible, a fundamental physics milestone that had eluded scientists for decades. Though challenges remain for commercial fusion power, the breakthrough proved a critical theoretical concept that many thought impossible. Many critics before that were referring to this point as the reason why it isn't worth it to keep researching. And they were proved wrong.

Trying to redefine the announcement and experiment result to mean something else so that you can attack is a dishonest behavior.

The LLNL fusion result was not a breakthrough. The fusion output was about 1% of the energy input. The exaggerated press release was just a PR ploy to get support for continued DoE funding, which was expiring at the end of 2022.

NIF is first and foremost a thermonuclear weapons research facility. The "breakthrough" you're talking about doesn't bring us an inch closer to fusion power.

And while we talk about fusion, even when the energy output surpass the energy input and the reaction is stable enough, how to you harness the energy? Because the reaction happen within a vacuum, the only way is to capture expelled neutrons and make electricity from it somehow.

Don’t worry, we can create a priesthood caste with secret knowledge of technology whose purpose is to guide the human race toward a brighter tomorrow!

Maybe someone could write a foundational science fiction novel about this.

I think that a 'breakthrough' would be to realize that harnessing fusion outside of a solar environment is a hopeless dream that, carefully fed, is very good at provoking research grants.

No they would not. Not all and probably most progresses are not technological. Are you living under a rock?

> Pride, Greed, Lust, Anger, Gluttony, Envy, Sloth

The greatest popular innovation of our time appears to be to have extended the above list with Falsehood, Cruelty, and Pollution.