I usually have some notion in hand as I set out to write a new missive for the blog. Something to inform, inspire, clarify but hopefully not to obscure or delude. Perhaps something to inspire. Despite the upcoming election and other extreme temptations I try to escape the eddies and flows of lures cleverly placed to snare me in support of one candidate or another. At least publicly.
But still, you get no extra credit for guessing that I’m not a supporter of either Messers Trump nor Vance.
Middle eastern politics is no relief either. While I have no appetite for the innocent victims. I know all too well the history the twentieth century when it comes to borders and claims, wars and victims. It’s hard to be dispassionate about the holocaust and the mass betrayals and executions over the centuries. Nor will I recount the battles of the war of Israeli independence nor the Palestinian catastrophe. There’s no relief from further afield. From what used to be no man’s land now grow demonstrations, regrets for admitting foreign workers (not just a US phenomena), and the conflicts between domestic laws and religious doctrine and more. I have no answers there’s no sign of an easy solution on the horizon. I leave to fools the illusion that a solution can be found over cocktails in an oasis. who delude themselves in the notion that it can be found in just a few weeks time.
There are some other answers that will take their time. Solving the energy problems of the world will take multiple approaches and sadly will need to include coal for some time to come. Getting thorium (fission) nuclear reactors would be a good place to start building in earnest. But fusion is probably, despite ITER and various commercial ventures a good sixty years away. My friend the astronomer delights in telling me the perfect material for a confinement vesicle to use in a fusions reactor is diamond (cubic carbon crystal structure) although I got him to say “a ha” when I suggested trying graphene. It took a lot of thinking to come up with graphene!
Zero point energy despite your fantasy channel of choice there’s no theoretical way to make it happen. But I confess I’m weak on Maxwell’s equations. I’m afraid that with our current abilities to manipulate spacetime that we’re a long way from more than theorizing about such things.
Maintaining a global sustainable environment. Avoiding nuclear or robotic or ai Armagedón.
OK class, that should keep you busy for a while.
Remember the first rule of cutting through nonsense. If it sounds too good to be true it probably is and the second law of thermodynamics hasn’t failed yet.
My Gifted Life 