Helion is expected to have its fusion generation device online by 2028 and to reach its target power generation of 50 megawatts or more within an agreed-upon one-year ramp up period. When the fusion device is fully up to speed producing 50 megawatts of energy, it will be able to power the equivalent of approximately 40,000 homes in Washington state.
While Helion’s deal with Microsoft is to get 50 megawatts online, the company eventually aims to produce a gigawatt of electricity, which is one billion watts, or 20 times the 50 megawatts it is selling to Microsoft.
Microsoft will pay for the megawatt hours of electricity as Helion delivers them to the grid.
Seems less likely to succeed than my startup Hellion, which seeks to generate nigh-unlimited amounts of clean energy by opening a portal to the Infernal Abyss.
nigh-unlimited amounts of clean energy by opening a portal to the Infernal Abyss.
Brb - googling.
Also - I don't mean to derail your this sub-thread but could you give us an update on your Hellion's Torment Nexus project?
Not at all, thanks for asking!
Hellion is making massive strides on the Torment Nexus project, with record-breaking reports of dissatisfaction among volunteer beta testers. We're still working on clearing the necessary hurdles to achieve mass torment at scale, but our prototype devices are capable of delivering steady streams of up to 100 agons per hour at standard loads, and incidences of spontaneous combustion into clouds of of brimstone-scented smoke and the insane giggling of a being driven beyond the pale of sanity whose warped mind can no longer be considered fully human are way down from our alpha testing. The engineering team feels like we are currently well ahead of our initially projected timeline to market. We plan to begin delivering affordable torment to customers in select US markets by Q4 2025.
delivering steady streams of up to 100 agons per hour at standard loads...
Fantastic!
We plan to begin delivering affordable torment to customers in select US markets by Q4 2025.
Impressive! Seriously though - I thought affordable torment was at least ~10 years away. This is indeed great news.
I thought affordable torment was at least ~10 years away. This is indeed great news
Using the methods available to us as little as a few years ago, you'd be right. Fortunately, thanks in part to tireless researchers at the Torment Studies Department of Stanford University, whose researchers are working with what some worrywarts might describe as "worryingly large" sums of public funding, we've developed several shortcuts in our torment delivery framework. Fears that the speed of our development is the result of dealmaking with dark forces with subtle motives beyond our ken are, of course, false - it's purely the result of some creative thinking coupled with a hard-nosed dedication to the scientific method. For example, experiments show that torment can be delivered via supersensory means, inducing feelings of dread, anxiety, and exhaustion without the user even aware that they're being tormented! Abilities previously thought to be unique to haunts and spirits confined to the non-physical planes can now be harnessed with a little boring engineering. For other concerns, we'll refer you to our Huey "Expandable" Mandibles, who was just promoted from our finance office to the role of Chief Ethics Officer.
The Torment Studies Department continues to impress. Stanford's gonna be a world leader in torment if they keep this up.
torment can be delivered via supersensory means
I'm speechless.
Abilities previously thought to be unique to haunts and spirits confined to the non-physical planes can now be harnessed with a little boring engineering.
Game changer.
Huey "Expandable" Mandibles... Chief Ethics Officer
Mandi gets results by understanding the bigger picture and by being hard nosed. Wise pick.
We appreciate your enthusiasm! It's support from our many potential customers that motivates us to work hard every day to deliver as much unnecessary unendurable punishment as technology permits straight to your cerebrum.
How are talks going with Cypress Hill to be your musical outreach communicators? I can't wait for the remix!
Torment in the membrane / Torment in the brain!
Hey, I've seen this done before, it's basically limitless power. In Minecraft.
No, really, in Minecraft - albeit modded. Some sort of chunk loader in the Nether, plus some means of pumping fluids, plus some sort of interdimensional transport of fluids, plus some sort of lava-fueled power generator (all pretty standard and easy to make in an average tech-type modpack) equals unlimited free power.
Way back when I was admining an FTB server running on Minecraft 1.7.10 and dealing with lag issues (fucking Railcraft tanks...) I just decided to put an infinite lava source at spawn using the EnderTanks mod so that players wouldn't need to put chunkloaders all over the Nether to get their lava power fix. They could just tune their own receiving tank to the same "frequency" (a three colour code) and voila, lava for power (or whatever else, like Tinker's Construct smelteries, I love that mod) without lagging the whole damn server.
I will bet $200 that helion is not the first net positive fusion reactor. I will bet a further $200 that the first such reactor is in China. That said, talk is cheap and I doubt many here would take that bet against me.
My prediction: China will have the first working net positive fusion reactor deployed in the field, but some US company will preempt the announcement by claiming to have the first one.
US fusion deployments won't happen for 2-3 years after that announcement, at which point China will have half their grid running on fusion power.
Americans will all widely proclaim to be the "inventors" of fusion and winners of the space race, despite all reactors sold coming from China. Any attempts to present this information to them will result in a screed about "China stealing" or some shit.
the US is way more than 2-3 years behind. it's got to be at least 30 years. fusion was abandoned by US researchers in the 60's.
I'd bet life savings the same way. Without a signficant newsworthy breakthrough that we'd already heard about, there's not a chance in hell this company is making energy from nuclear fusion in 4 years.
Lol in 4 years it's most likely that company gets acquired by another giant corpo and get scrapped while some dickheads in that startup run away with the cash.
We get scalable, safe nuclear fusion
It is exclusively used to run LLMs that barely work and to trade apes
I believe they need to do a rethink to get it accomplished in four years.
-
Create a Harry Potter magic wand that actually does magic.
-
Wave it.
-
Create fusion energy.
-
Profittttt
The only real hurdle is number one and how hard can that be?
-
I had to stop at about the 3 minute mark. It was already over my head. But he had made a joke that I really liked. He mentioned the possibility that venture capital can create some kind of magic that will overcome all insurmountable problems. I hadn't thought of the word greenwashing for what Microsoft is doing here but that's clearly what this is. They know there's a zero percent chance Hellion can accomplish what they say and that VC magic isn't real. But we're going green as hard as we can is great PR.
Hey, I'd recommend starting with an earlier video. How nuclear fusion works (1) - fusors, thermonuclear reactions, lattice fusion
This video is easier to understand. From there, you can work your way up to the Helion video, as each vid builds upon his previous ones. (I understand this guy is all science, no philosophy. Hence why I see an artillery shell with the channel's name on the main page, possibly going to Ukraine.)
Thanks for the link! I really like this man's speaking style. He's obviously carefully prepared his script and he's speaking very clearly. Both are such rarities on youtube. The dry joke about Lockheed Martin's timeframe at about the 20 second mark in this video made me do a genuine spit-take.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
100% these US companies will be reliant on China for small-scale nuclear or liquid thorium power plants and most likely the state department won't allow them to purchase it. so....China will win in AI? the US will try to put their ai training facilities in other countries to take advantage of cheap electricity.
ai training facilities in other countries to take advantage of cheap electricity.
I hadn't even considered that and I can imagine something. After the facilities get broken into - the companies will scream and yell they need emergency federal funds to "harden" their facilities against future attacks. In short order they'll get tens of billions of dollars. But then the executives will forget all about their facilities and spend nearly 100% of the money on stock buy backs which props up their stock prices and makes themselves even richer.
