[ExI] Trump Is Obsessed With Oil, but Chinese Batteries Will Soon Run the World

[spike at rainier66.com]

-----Original Message-----
From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> On Behalf Of Ben
Zaiboc via extropy-chat
Sent: Saturday, 24 January, 2026 4:32 AM
To: extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
Cc: Ben Zaiboc <benzaiboc at proton.me>
Subject: Re: [ExI] Trump Is Obsessed With Oil, but Chinese Batteries Will
Soon Run the World


Speaking of power, here are two interesting developments in fusion power:

https://interestingengineering.com/energy/worlds-first-public-fusion-company
https://interestingengineering.com/energy/helion-gets-funding-to-power-to-mi
crosoft

-- 
Ben

_______________________________________________



Ben, back in the late Permian period, when I was an undergrad in mechanical
engineering, an intentional oversimplification of the state of the art in
fusion power was that there were three plausible fusion reactions:
deuterium-deuterium, deuterium-tritium, and tritium-tritium.  In very
general, the problem with 2H-2H was that it we couldn't sustain it.  The
problem with 3H-3H was we couldn't contain it.  The problem with 2H-3H was
that most of the liberated energy went into a hot neutron, from which the
energy could only be effectively extracted if that neutron was absorbed by
some nucleus, and if so, that nucleus became radioactive.

Ja I know that is an oversimplification of a complex concept, but the
Permian period was a long time ago.  Yet today, we still have that same
problem, and we still have the same sexy proposals: using mercury to absorb
the neutron, and since the mercury is not structural, it doesn't matter as
much as it would be if the neutron is absorbed by the containment vessel.
My power textbook has mercury vapor tables (...ooooh we got so turned on by
those (the late Permian was before Bill Gates came along and made it sexy to
be a science geek (so we had to be turned on in other ways (rather than the
usual means (such as literal "girls."))))))  Ah, those were the bad old
days.

Now... we still see proposals for liquid metal containment of 2H-3H fusion.
However... I am several decades more cynical than I was then.  I do not
consider the singularity as close as Elon Musk (he thinks this year, maybe
next year) or John (who thinks two years, maybe three) however I agree the
singularity is near, almost certainly within 20 years, which means at some
point we just hafta admit fusion energy didn't work out for us.

On the other hand, if we manage to get AI to human level intelligence, it
takes over and superintelligence achieves itself.  Hmmm, SAI achieves
itself, that just sounds weird.  But it shouldn't.  Modern human
civilization achieved itself, using only human-level intelligence.  It took
a while.

With that attitude expressed in the previous paragraphs, you see why I am
ready to give up on fusion power, or wait for SAI to explain to us how to do
it.  In the meantime, we have ways to convert chemical energy to electric
power or use nuclear fission, and we need those means to create SAI.  We
know how to do this.  Former considerations such as global warming are now
irrelevant as all hell, unless... for some unknown reason...
superintelligent AI is impossible.  Ben, I don't see why it would be
impossible.  Do you?  Anyone?

spike