Thread by @swardley

X : Do you generate your own power?
Me : Mostly
X Solar?
Me : Fusion
X : Fusion?
Me : Yep, I've a great big fusion generator about 150m km away and a bunch of collectors on my roof. Help yourself, it's free energy. Produces more than I need.

X : Thoughts on Gov fusion research?
Me : You've got all the fusion you could want. My fusion reactor is way bigger than yours and it has been operating smoothly for 4.5 billion years. You haven't got a lack of fusion problem, you've got a lack of collectors problem.

X : So build more solar panels?
Me : What's it with you and building stuff all the time? Try growing more trees and not cutting so many down. The best sort of collectors are the ones we grow. After that solar / wind is ok but don't worry about efficiency, there's plenty of space.

X : We need power 24x7.
Me : Its pumping out 24 hrs a day and has been for 4.5 billion years. What you've got is a distribution and storage problem. PS. batteries ... you can do better, be more ambitious. Even heavy rain is free energy if you collect it high enough.

X : If this is true, why the focus on building fusion reactors?
Me : I'll guess a whole bunch of venture capitalists have realised that their personal nirvana of Wall-E with bankers in space requires fusion? Didn't you wonder why they were all glued to screens? Butcoin traders.

X : You mean Bitcoin not butcoin.
Me : I know what I mean. It's a burn the planet to get rich scheme. There's a big BUT in there.

X : Is there a political angle here?
Me : There wasn't but ... since you ask. The Conservatives are fracking mad - mirror.co.uk/news/politics/…
and their focus on fusion is no different - theconversation.com/conservatives-…

X : Doesn't that mean digging up coal and burning it is carbon neutral?
Me : Err ... we're talking about energy use in which we have an abundance from our fusion generator in the sky and you're talking about the need to dig up dead stuff to burn it?

X : Well, you're talking about more trees which we need to burn for energy.
Me : Is burn everything your default? That seems to show a remarkable lack of imagination. I'm talking about trees as great energy collectors ... maybe we could learn to exploit that without the burning?

X : That's why we need fusion power!
Me : We've got an abundance of fusion power, we just need to work out how to use it and stop burning stuff because it's easy.

X : What about the short term fix?
Me : Fission was an imperfect but better place to be. Though I used to take a lot of heat from environmental activists in 90s for promoting it ... at least we knew how to do fission.