The money the US spends on fusion research compared to, say, oil exploration, is pocket change. Fusion research has always been the red-headed stepchild. It's not like Bussard is asking for a huge amount of money ... as noted earlier, the US spends the same amount in Iraq every eight minutes. Compared to the federal budget, it's literally in the noise level. It would be stupid not to research an idea that could work when it costs so little to do it and the potential payoff is so huge.
We all know the government acts in stupid and politically-motivated ways. Are we to judge an idea by whether the government funds it? If we do, then Linux is worthless, but the Iraq war is the most precious thing to happen so far this century. And stem cell research, well, that's clearly complete crap, isn't it? The government not only won't fund it, but has legislated limits on what people can do with it at their own expense. Surely that has to mean it's a really, really bad idea.
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The money the US spends on fusion research compared to, say, oil exploration, is pocket change. Fusion research has always been the red-headed stepchild. It's not like Bussard is asking for a huge amount of money ... as noted earlier, the US spends the same amount in Iraq every eight minutes. Compared to the federal budget, it's literally in the noise level. It would be stupid not to research an idea that could work when it costs so little to do it and the potential payoff is so huge.
We all know the government acts in stupid and politically-motivated ways. Are we to judge an idea by whether the government funds it? If we do, then Linux is worthless, but the Iraq war is the most precious thing to happen so far this century. And stem cell research, well, that's clearly complete crap, isn't it? The government not only won't fund it, but has legislated limits on what people can do with it at their own expense. Surely that has to mean it's a really, really bad idea.