If Fusion Has Been Cracked, Watch For This…
https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/12/us/common-questions-nuclear-fusion-climate/index.html
Lets see what happens with fusion in the next months and years. If there is a genuine breakthrough, it might be instructive to look at the opinions of people who were saying "it will always be ten years away."
This is something that used to confuse me. Why would they say that? Isn't that implying that we would NEVER be able to harness fusion?
Personally, I think this was a bit of the "emergency room MD" pattern a doctor friend once told me about, that emergency room physicians are the LAST people you want to talk to about future medical developments. They want to know about what can be used TODAY to save lives. A mental focus, rather than a mental flaw…unless they imply it will never happen, and are dogmatic about it.
Then, that reluctance to dream about future developments is a mental rigidity that cannot even peek around the corner, and mocks those who can. It is tempting to ask what other arenas of human life we can find this:
Serious commitment to X
Doubt about the efficiency of Y, which would affect X
A hunger for Y if it affects X, that has to be clamped down TIGHT to prevent frustration
Leading to a denial that Y will ever exist--a form of self-protection.
That would be one possible answer. Another would be people who don't WANT X, and therefore reject Y.
Interestingly, some very similar statements can arise from either hunger or aversion. I've seen this in relationship to space travel or colonization, race and gender relations, personal development ("people don't change!" they say, explaining away any apparent changes they observe in others, or even their own history. Why? Ego fear, or fear of hope, could both explain it.). Artificial intelligence is another. Its always far in the distance, and if you keep moving the goal posts, that's accurate.
Extreme hope, or extreme fear, can EACH lead a person to making absolute statements of denial. Faith requires some sense that the change can and will happen, and that it will be for the best.
Any way…we may have an opportunity to watch society change, and I think it would be valuable to remember who said what, and what they say now. Look for the general principle that helps you understand not just their reaction, but themselves as human beings…and yourself.
Just a really interesting moment in time.
Namaste
Steve
www.stevenbarneslist.com
