Reply To: T-shirt designers unite and take over

[ailabs]

Society also builds a tax structure on products and services and that’s especially true for gasoline and other oil-based fuels. So an abrupt switch to truly cheap and inexhaustible energy sources, such as fusion, could result in massive losses of tax revenue, unless a corresponding $N/KW hour tax is made “part of the package.”

As far as being concerned about bringing the whole world up to advanced-world standards of living at the outset, we might want to go by the technology adoption curve. That means early adopters will (have to) be well off for practical reasons. That leaves, for focus fusion, regions like North America, Europe, Japan/S.Korea/China and Australia, if we want to accelerate development and commercialization, as I think we must. In business I always “overplay” competitive threats, to stay ahead come what may. So I’d strive to beat Toshiba’s claim of 5 cents per kilowatt hour and at least triple the funding to gain time too. I realize it is easy for me to “at least triple funding requirements” when we don’t even have the original funding in place. Maybe asking for “too little” to develop such a profoundly significant technology is a handicap, while 30 – 60 – 100 million would actually be taken seriously?