Well, I think it depends on the pricing. Because if it's too expensive, obviously no-one will be able to afford it. So it has to be relatively cheap first. But otherwise, I don't know. All I can think of is less reliance on importing oil, which saves money... Because at the moment, despite the risk of the fossil fuels running out, we're coping fine. So I have to say, for now, the major uses would be at specialist research centres that are hungry for power.

If we all die, it will the most badass apocalypse ever.

Head of the experiment Dr. Otto Octavius

Wait wut?

We'd double our energy use on frivolous things like an air conditioner big enough to cool an entire city


Yup. Just got to worry about those pesky steam explosions (as far as explosions are concerned that is)


Unfortunately, I bet on the crippled by lobbying scenario

I'd quite agree that if this were mainstreamed so it was practical, that the big companies in the world would reject it and still maintain a hold on the economies of countries.
Which is sad, honestly. A world without greed is a fairy tale.
A world like in Star Trek, where the greatest aspiration of humanity is discovery, and everyone works together for the benefit of mankind. I'd give my own life for the future to have that. But it wont ever happen.

Blackhole > Star exploding.

Anyway uses, well we wont have to worry about global warming, energy and prices of energy.

A practical fusion reactor. It could work. or it could fail like many other attempts due to the large amount of power needed to make two Hydrogen atoms combine into Helium.

An atomic bomb's power and the power of gunpowder are not comparable to that of a star. With that said, I don't know what to think. It isn't supposed to be very large and it isn't supposed to be around for long.

I must say, reading this topic does indeed make me scared; such massive amounts of ill informed hysteria does unsettle me considerably.

For those who say "I can't see how this could possibly not cause the end of mankind", well, it's pretty darn obvious why you're not the nuclear physicist, isn't it?

We need less idiotic fearmongering and more scientific breakthroughs.

Of course, people will like to compare this to the atomic bomb. Thing is, the atomic bomb was developed for years to get the desired effect, they weren't playing around with some unstable isotopes in their penthouse one drug-fueled evening and suddenly everything was devoured by a mushroom cloud. The most devastating weapons of all time have taken decades to develop, they didn't happen by accident, and this thing isn't even designed to be a weapon.

Something can go wrong; IE there's a chance they get a spectacular failure and absolutely nothing happens. I'm not entirely sure I'm sufficiently paranoid to start freaking out at the possibility of nothing whatsoever happening just yet.

Okay if you want we can stop all the "scientists" and humanity can regress and eventually vanish from the face of the galaxy. Eventually we would expend all natural forms of energy on earth necessitating a trip outwards for some more, but by then its too late and we already used up all the [censored] energy. Then the resources get scarce and people fight over it. Finally tribal war bands scavenge for what little is left. Eventually there would be nothing for us, and we would die off slowly.

Then over the course of who knows how long the earth would... regenerate itself so to speak, but the odds of it looking anything like it is now is slim. Or if we really mess up in the resource wars and somehow do catastrophic damage then he planet will also die.

Assuming it all goes peachy and the planet survives us it will just be absorbed into the sun eventually anyways. Then that sun will be turned into a whitedwarf, and then things will keep happening while were gone.

So I vote and say we stop ALL SCIENCE NOWWWW!!!1111111111!!!!! :facepalm:

Edit
Asteroids, Stellar Radiation Fields, Asteroid Belts, Hurling into the Void, Super Novas, Quasars, Quantum [censored] strings where we could all turn pink and go inside out for all I know. There is literally an infinite amount of ways things could go badly. And your worried about this rather tiny thing? Heh.

Who said stop all science now? The sun won't fry earth anytime soon.

What this guy said.

At least I get a good laugh every time some guy posts his opinion on a subject he absolutely has no idea about. Neither do I on this particular thing (as in, how this experiment will work et cetera), so I don't comment.

It's just a sarcastic reply to this general fear people seem to have about this one infinitely small experiment. That and people just yell out science like it explains and covers everything... somehow.

a lot of oil+extreme heat=problem

One large seafood boil.

I agree that it doesn't really seem dangerous(a star that disappears in far under a second and isn't even as large as human hair doesn't really sound intimidating). Something could go wrong, but I doubt something will go wrong and the benefits from success would be great.

Virtually everyone in this thread need's to read "Calculated Risks" by K. C. Cole. This is a perfect example of people behaving very irrationally when dealing with risks. The danger involved (extremely low) vs the potential positive effects of fusion power (of which there's an incredible amount) is a no-brainer for me. Whereas many of you who are so afraid of a "star on the Earth's surface" are probably just fine with speeding up trying to make it through a yellow light. Which one do you think is more likely to kill you, hmm? Well, at least you got home 20 seconds earlier.

Not even bothered as H-bombs have higher temp than the sun.

:whisper: this is a fusion reaction, calling it a star is a complete misnomer, a mini-star is still just a cry for sensationalism :whisper:


Basically something could go wrong causing a fully loaded passenger airplane to crash into my house, but I don't go trying to stop airplanes. That would probably kill more people than the worst case scenario for this experiment too.

I didn't read much about it until after I typed that. I'm all for fusion reactions.

I agree, which is why I said I doubt a problem is probable.

Would you guys be afraid if a I pointed an apparatus at you that used electrons to excite the air and send countless rays of energy shooting at you going thousand and thousands of miles a second?

Because that would be a flashlight.

A fusion reaction takes a lot of energy to get going and needs that energy to sustain it. If an experiment like that SOMEHOW got out of control, the instant the input energy was halted the reaction would die.

I blame Spiderman 2 for all the fear that exists in this thread.

I blame calling this a star. That doesn't sound appealing. From the article I read, it sounds safe. Why say "create a star on earth"?

Those who are not scared, I'm happy for you guys. :goodjob: I will speak for myself, sorry I am not a Hero like you and see this positive and that nothing can go wrong.

Fusion reaction experiments to produce energy have been going on for 2+ decades. So why suddenly be scared for a technology that has been more or less proven, especially for an experiment that won't even be the largest fusion reaction yet?