Trapped at Berkeley

After reading technoMyst’s response to my cold fusion post, I thought I’d provide some counter-arguments:

Power companies can choose to adapt or die. Nobody is going to miss them. At the turn of the century, petroleum replaced coal as the fuel of choice. Within a few decades, many coal companies were forced out of business and were replaced by the forefathers of today’s energy giants. The same thing is going to occur with the introduction of cold fusion.

With cold fusion, there will be no need for a power infrastructure. Most homes and businesses will be able to live ‘off the grid’ because they’ll be able to generate all the power they need. However, let�s suppose that a power infrastructure is necessary in some urban areas. I don’t see how the maintenance of a power grid is going to lead to an energy monopoly. As technoMyst jubilantly stated, we live in a capitalistic society. Since cold fusion brings a very high return on investment, many individuals will be encouraged to open ‘power companies’. Competition will drive prices down.

I also don’t see how cold fusion will lead to or require a socialist society. Again, as technoMyst himself states, someone will have to provide the raw resources and build the greenhouses. I think that means a market economy and jobs.

The basic ingredient of most fertilizers is nitrate. The raw materials we’d need are all around us: our atmosphere is mostly nitrogen, and hydrogen is everywhere. With limitless energy, the conversion of these raw resources into nitrate will be practical.

Surely, the introduction of cold fusion will result in the loss of many jobs. People will realize that it�ll be cheaper to use cold fusion powered machines than hire human laborers. However, I fail to see how this shift will lead to economic chaos. The Industrial Age did not lead to economic chaos; economies evolve, and people find jobs.

It’s kind of hard to keep the successful development of cold fusion a national secret. If the existence of cold fusion is confirmed, scientists around the world would be scrambling to develop it. It’s not like cold fusion is an easily guarded document or password; it’s a process that can be replicated anywhere.

Sorry, but the age of nuclear weapons started a long time ago. Notice the word ‘cold’ in cold fusion; cold fusion is fusion under controllable conditions. We already have fusion weapons - they’re more commonly known as thermonuclear weapons. The introduction of cold fusion is not going to spark a major arms race; it already happened and was called ‘The Cold War’.