The famous Skunk Works at Lockheed, the inventors of stealth technology, the SR-71 Blackbird and many other black projects, has announced a breakthrough in fusion technology, and is now looking for financing. The breakthrough seems to be centered around the shape of the tokomak within which the nuclear process of fusion remain captive. We have seen these announcements before, and they have to this point been premature to say the least. Locking up the nuclear process that fuels the stars seems a bit beyond human capacity to manage. I prefer cold fusion as a power source, though cold fusion is beyond the horizon as well. Still, if the Skunk Works says they have something, we have to pay attention, though I have the feeling I won’t be changing the tokomak that powers a mining city on an uninhabited planetoid at the edge of a spiral arm in my sci fi novel Soliloquy any time soon. One thing is certain, though, and that is if anyone ever discoverers an unlimited source of cheap energy the government will tax it to the point of being non-competitive.

If this chimera isn’t an illusion
If ever we get energy from fusion
The government will leap to one conclusion
That something must be done and done real fast
We cannot leave untaxed this new creation
We must prepare the proper regulation
We’ll cancel every bureaucrat’s vacation
And get this thing tight hammered to the mast