According to this development, the development of the entire society seems to be very smooth, and there is nothing particularly strange about it.
Even human footprints are like this...
As science and technology advances and life becomes richer, of course we must pursue peace, democracy, and equality. Do some people really like to fight and kill all day long?
What is hindering the development of nuclear fusion and delaying it for 50 years after 50 years?
Is it the high difficulty of the technology itself or the lack of awareness of danger? Is it the social system or something else?
The venue was very quiet, and Yu Yifeng also fell into his own thoughts.
An air of decadence continued to ferment in the venue.
Especially many of the people here are originally scientists, engineers, and even nuclear physicists. They can think of more things...
Many people were already sitting in their seats with pale faces, staring in a daze.
Controllable nuclear fusion technology has always been an inconspicuous project, and a lot of energy and funds have never been invested in it.
Because of the large amount of cheap uranium resources in Nix, even if this kind of nuclear fusion is developed, it will not be cheaper than the current uranium mine for a while, so it becomes dispensable.
Occasionally, there will be a little news, and then it will immediately become silent again.
All Knicks people are immersed in the wave of scientific progress and seem to have ignored this technology...
They have been misled by the media. They are in an era of technological explosion, and science is increasing at an exponential rate. Nuclear fusion is achievable, and the occasional positive news shows that this work is continuing to advance.
Well, there is indeed news, but some plasma is ignited and lasts for as long as it takes, but it is useless for formal power generation...
Official power generation requires stability and long-term stability.
If it's so laborious to ignite, how can it actually generate electricity?
These news just pop up from time to time to appease the public and tell everyone: scientific researchers are not lazy and are not wasting taxpayers' money... nothing more.
There was once a sage who studied superconductivity. When interviewed, he said: "Nuclear fusion will be ready when society needs it!"
On the surface, this sentence seems to say that nuclear fusion is achievable, and everyone can rest assured that the energy issue in the future will be.
In fact, he is complaining that this technology cannot be developed because the government has not invested enough money...
But no one noticed the subtext.
Everyone is immersed in the prosperous age of "technological explosion", and the energy crisis is too far away.
The society of Nix civilization has developed to the present, and all the privileged classes have been wiped out, of course...including the originally transcendent sage class.
Capital began to dominate civilization.
It is impossible for a dictator to jump out and try to use the whole country to study a certain project. Such a government has been overthrown long ago. Do you really think it is a war era?
Now is the era of democracy and peace. Everything must be centered on economic construction and vigorously develop productivity.
The happiness and stability of the people are the top priority, and everything should be aligned with the economy.
But capital has one common characteristic: it is profit-seeking. Capital is profit-seeking.
Researching nuclear fusion? It costs money!
Where does the money come from? It comes out of taxpayers’ pockets!
If the expenditure is too much, public services will inevitably decline, and the people will not be willing to do so.
Scientific research funds need to be spent wisely and cannot be wasted on seemingly unimportant nuclear fusion, because there is too much uranium ore and it is too cheap, enough to last for 100,000 years!
So how much effort does it take to study nuclear fusion? Let’s wait until it becomes more developed in the future!
The class of sages, from ancient times to the present, has defeated nature and religion, but has been defeated by money.
Without money, you are nothing. Without money, you cannot buy scientific research materials.
The development of science has been put under a tight spell by the economy. Of course, it is not just nuclear fusion, there are more things...
People are not willing to sacrifice their quality of life to study something that seems of little value. Ordinary people only focus on their immediate lives. Science that can serve economic development is good science.
Like the Large Hadron Collider, many Knicks people find it difficult to understand that with so much money, why not help poor areas? For this reason, there have been some demonstrations and other activities.
Especially for nuclear fusion, a difficult problem that has been studied for so many years, it is impossible to achieve much in the short term. So it is better to let other countries study it. When it is proven feasible, then copy it, that will be more cost-effective!
For government departments, the issue of public opinion is a big issue, related to the appointment and resignation of high-level officials. No one dares to push against public opinion, not even the president, and there are restrictions from Congress.
However, there are still knowledgeable people among government workers, and even if their status is no longer transcendent, the sage class still has a good influence. Therefore, many sciences that seem to have no economic effect for a while are still slowly promoted...
...Although the funds provided are not very abundant, at least there is funding.
In this way, time flies, two hundred years have passed, and controllable nuclear fusion technology has ushered in its fifth... "50 years"!
In more than 200 years, without any existential crisis, the total population of Knicks has increased tenfold, from the original 230 million to 2.3 billion.
Many cities don't even need to be built on volcanoes and rely entirely on nuclear power for heating.
It’s not just the population, individual electricity consumption has increased more than 10 times compared to before!
In the past, Knicks people only needed one electric light and some heating equipment to meet their electricity needs.
But now... a variety of appliances, various personal vehicles, better entertainment, and more personal belongings have been added.
There are many more factories that also require large amounts of electrical energy.
The Knicks suddenly discovered that the energy share for 100,000 years needs to be divided by 100!
As a result, this time was directly reduced to one thousand years...and as the population increases and power consumption increases, this time is still shrinking rapidly.
1000 years...
"...Are you worried about the energy crisis in a thousand years?" Professor Heigl asked on the stage.
All the elite humans here laughed involuntarily. This was a sad smile or a bitter smile...
In comparison, how long can human fossil energy be used by humans?
Some scientists and analysts say it will take 40 years, and the most optimistic one is only 200 years. However, this does not take into account the growth of total energy consumption, and it is actually shorter.
Under normal circumstances, fossil energy alone cannot survive the 21st century...
Let's take an average, 100 years.
Facing the energy crisis that is just around the corner, mankind has not yet developed a strong sense of urgency.
So, how can these large lizards be asked to worry about things a thousand years from now? Their lifespan is also equivalent to that of humans, or even lower.
A thousand years from now, when my ashes are gone, who will remember me?
"Yes, that's the truth. We don't even have the awareness of the energy crisis in 100 years, let alone in a thousand years."
Heigl sighed: "If...the project of controllable nuclear fusion itself requires massive resources and energy..."
"This massive amount is truly massive, for example, it is a hundred times or even a thousand times more than the global annual GDP!"
"So, when the energy crisis does come, how are the Knicks going to get it done?"
"Faced with this problem, they no longer have enough energy and fighting spirit to complete this project! How can they complete it?"