Our "Brave Thinker"

Reflections on fusion history, current events, and predictions for the 'fusion powered future.
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Paul_Schatzkin
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Our "Brave Thinker"

Post by Paul_Schatzkin »

I was tuned in this morning to MSNBC for its "Hurricane Sandy" coverage, and caught the tail end of an interview with somebody from The Atlantic Magazine who was discussing its listing of "Brave Thinkers" for the year 2012.

I about spit out my oatmeal when he said one the people on the list was a teenager working on "cold fusion*."

I knew right away what he was talking about. See for yourself:

http://49chevy.blogs.com/fusor/2012/10/ ... kers-.html

So Taylor has earned himself one of PayPal founder Peter Thiel's $100,000 "you can have this money if you don't go to college" grants. I hope he's not spending any of that money on PR...

--PS

- - - - - -

*if I'd been drinking milk instead of eating oatmeal when I heard this, I would have blown the milk out my nose at the use of the expression 'cold fusion.' It really disheartens me when people who are given a forum like national television reveal that the really have no idea what they are talking about.
Paul Schatzkin, aka "The Perfesser" – Founder and Host of Fusor.net
Author of The Boy Who Invented Television: 2023 Edition – https://amz.run/6ag1
"Fusion is not 20 years in the future; it is 60 years in the past and we missed it."
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Richard Hull
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Re: Our "Brave Thinker"

Post by Richard Hull »

I wonder how far that $100K will go towards solving the fusion mystery?

Richard Hull
Progress may have been a good thing once, but it just went on too long. - Yogi Berra
Fusion is the energy of the future....and it always will be
The more complex the idea put forward by the poor amateur, the more likely it will never see embodiment
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Re: Our "Brave Thinker"

Post by Nicker »

Seeing as how fusion is only 50 years away, hopefully the $100K will speed things up.
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Jim Kovalchick
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Re: Our "Brave Thinker"

Post by Jim Kovalchick »

The 100k isn't for fusion development; it is " a no-strings-attached grant of $100,000 to skip college and focus on their work, their research, and their self-education." I think the general premise is that college would hold these under-20 wunderkind back.

I personally hold the opinion that universities are the best place to nurture our top thinkers as long as convention is not used to hold them back, but it is my experience that the best universities all have plenty of programs to let high po's excellerate. To isolate them in an elitist way is a mistake. It probably won't help them and it definitely won't help others. Perhaps the fellowship will still allow a collegial approach, but my superficial read on it is that the best that be gained from this situation is that it will be a think tank for product development for a rich financier will make a buck on. Forgive my skepticism, and please don't interpret it as any comment on the young participants themselves.
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Chris Bradley
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Re: Our "Brave Thinker"

Post by Chris Bradley »

I'm still a bit rather hazy on what Taylor's ideas are - it'd be nice if he recognised the forum that spawned his good works and disseminated back what these are and what he is currently trying to do.

Isn't that what this forum is for?

What are his 'brave thoughts', exactly? Just dreams, or are they grounded on physical reality?

I'd really like to understand the basis of what he's trying to do. Is it just 'fusor-gone-large', or has he a more substantive original idea on where to take fusor design, or is he thinking of another device altogether?

Anyhow, I'd agree with Jim that the educational routes have evolved for good reasons. Nonetheless, I would pick a 'mid-point' between those viewpoints and I think a grant mixed with part-time studies would be optimum. e.g. the terms are you do 2 days a week at Uni for 4 or 5 years, a bit like a sponsored 'under-grad' PhD, so to speak, in whatever you want to research. That way, you get academics keeping the work 'real' and relevant, whilst a wad of cash is there to support 'maverick' routes without worrying about what sort of projects might make a successful grant application, etc..
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Chris Bradley
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Re: Our "Brave Thinker"

Post by Chris Bradley »

Richard Hull wrote:
> I wonder how far that $100K will go towards solving the fusion mystery?


.. or maybe just on educating the general public on the differences between 'cold' and 'real' fusion.
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Carl Willis
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Re: Our "Brave Thinker"

Post by Carl Willis »

I would like to hear more from Taylor on the forum also, but of course nobody can compel him to indulge the interest. I sometimes talk to him on the phone. I think his current fusion projects revolve more around DPF and less around IEC. His fascination with nuclear science had its origins elsewhere besides this forum, and his present interests in nuclear science are much broader than fusion, so indeed our community may not be notably prominent in his life. There is a wide nuclear world out there and he is well-connected in it.

As far as the $100k goes, it's an unusual opportunity with unusual risks, and Taylor already had an unusual academic trajectory and is an unusual guy. I don't think there will be lessons from his experience with the Thiel Fellowship that apply generally to anyone else. I don't doubt he will make the most of it.

I do hope Taylor and anyone else who accepts Mr. Thiel's money is able to keep sufficiently distant from the limitations of some of the man's own views, e.g., on higher education. There's a widely-held, albeit restrictive and poorly-considered, framing of education-as-financial-investment that happens to be common across ideological lines, and it's central to Thiel's critique. The far more durable ideal of education as a value in itself is minimized in this view, and the role of formal education in broadening one's horizons is given short shrift. As long as one can take the money without being beholden to Thiel's own prolonged intellectual adolescence on certain matters, then it's surely a compelling option. Personally, I think college and grad school were opportunities that, in quite different ways, expanded my interests and helped satisfy my curiosity, and I would encourage any high-schooler on here to think seriously about going to college as one of the surest ways to nurture the intellect.

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Re: Our "Brave Thinker"

Post by Frank Sanns »

Carl, I can not agree with you more. As much as I bucked the school system through HS and college, it is a positive experience. Without it, I know for a fact that I would not have the knowledge and insight that I now have. Many times it is the questions that arise in your head when you are learning something else. The piquing of curiosity and the humbleness of how much we do not know. There are those that are successful without college but one wonders how much more than might have had if they had attended. By attended, I do not mean void of the world of work but by integration of internships, work, and education in conjunction with each other.

Frank Sanns
Achiever's madness; when enough is still not enough. ---FS
We have to stop looking at the world through our physical eyes. The universe is NOT what we see. It is the quantum world that is real. The rest is just an electron illusion. ---FS
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Paul_Schatzkin
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Re: Our "Brave Thinker"

Post by Paul_Schatzkin »

Thanks for that suggestion, Chris.

Maybe we can just educate some in the media, and they can educate the public.

"Cold Fusion" - one of the great oxymorons of our time.

--P
Paul Schatzkin, aka "The Perfesser" – Founder and Host of Fusor.net
Author of The Boy Who Invented Television: 2023 Edition – https://amz.run/6ag1
"Fusion is not 20 years in the future; it is 60 years in the past and we missed it."
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Richard Hull
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Re: Our "Brave Thinker"

Post by Richard Hull »

The media educates the public about as well as it informs them. The media is a mere concentrated, condensed reflection of the public's "interest du jour". Cerebration is not the public's strong point. As always, Circus is what they want. Media is the ever attentive and doating ringmaster.

Richard Hull
Progress may have been a good thing once, but it just went on too long. - Yogi Berra
Fusion is the energy of the future....and it always will be
The more complex the idea put forward by the poor amateur, the more likely it will never see embodiment
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Re: Our "Brave Thinker"

Post by Dennis P Brown »

I have to fully agree with Frank and Chris; going to college (esp. for STEM majors; not that many other majors aren't useful, too) can build a great bases to learn and develop in a manner that few other career paths can do in that time period. That is, unless they then decide to attend law school (and get into $100 K + debt for that), which would then be at least one step below cold fusion in usefulness ... .
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