It was announced in late December that the scientists have finally achieved a breakthrough concerning something that used to be considered the stuff of science fiction: nuclear fusion. It will be cool in the next couple of decades to see this one progress (and, inevitably) get commercialized. But the implications will eventually become clear: limitless and abundant energy. It will affect everything.
I’ve long held to a pet theory that high energy prices divide people, in this nation at least. We all know that costs get passed along to consumers: so when gas prices are high, the costs of goods and services go up. But – those high gas prices also affect things other than heating one’s home, higher grocery prices, and the cost of plastic. Higher gas prices also tends to make people travel less which leads to more isolated communities and a feeling of being “not a part of” the greater whole. Think about it: people like to travel when they can afford it, and when people travel not only do they spend money in other places, but they meet new people, see new things, and – what I think is critical – get exposed to new ideas and modes of life.
It isn’t rocket science: people need people. One of the prevailing theories about why homo sapiens survived and neanderthals didn’t is that homo sapiens did one thing better: communicated. That is, neanderthals did a lot of the same things homo sapiens did: they used tools, probably invented nearly the same stuff – in fact, they might have been more physically adept at surviving than homo sapiens (they were bigger, stronger, etc.). But – they didn’t talk to each other. Isolated groups of neanderthals probably invented all sorts of the same things homo sapiens did, they just didn’t tell the other neanderthals about it – which meant the secret of making the latest flint-tipped arrow died with whatever clan invented it. Not homo sapiens: we told everyone else we knew about it. We are basically hard wired this way: I mean, I could never get my teenagers to stop stop talking.
At any rate, we’ll see where nuclear fusion goes: at the moment its in the government’s hands and we all know how much they actually talk about stuff and share information – about as well as the neanderthals did sometimes.
Happy New Year folks. I hope 2023 brings the best to all of you!
