Reply To: Fusion Oil

[Brian H]

Rematog wrote: Actually, a single dominate technology is very common.

Piston type steam engines totally replaced by steam turbines.

Internal combustion engines for vehicles (still over 99% of market. Note, Hybrids use in IC engine as primary energy source).

Internal combusion engines totally replace by gas turbines in large aircraft (either turbo-prop or turbo-fans).

The transister and it’s (current) ultimate developement, the silicon chip integrated circuit, totally dominate the computer industry. How many devices use vacuum tubes today?

Hard drives, one basic technology. Compact Disc/DVD/Blue-ray, all one basic tech.

We use what works best, and forget the rest. How many people today can chip a flint knife?

Interesting point.

It is thus perhaps significant that power generation has been a pot-pourri of technologies: hydro, coal, gas, oil, nuclear, etc. That variety has a certain flexibility and robustness, but it certainly has the look of fumbling about for something that produces adequate results at reasonable cost.