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We Are the Future, and the Future Is Now

Dorothy H. Smith

    JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA – Date, 2011
    The future is here. It permeates every aspect of everyday life. We Americans are busy; occupied with work, kids, church and leisure. We accept new innovations and technologies that impact our day-to-day lives with scarcely a raised eyebrow. We view the microchip and the computer, in its many applications, as before-and-after phenomena. We accept the computer revolution as society-changing technology.
    My generation came of age in the 1950s during the advent of electronic computation. One assumed future computers and computer networks would most likely focus on large, globe-encompassing networks of centralized data communications and access to data.
     In actuality, use of personal computers began in the 1960s and 70s, and came into full bloom during the 1980s. The PC revolutionized the American economy and contributed to massive increase in worker productivity. Now, in 2011, the globe-straddling central data Internet is a reality. But it is accessible only as a result of the proliferation of personal computing devices.
    Similarly, the development of the internal combustion engine in the late 1890s combined with gasoline refined from petroleum led to the oil economy of the 20th century. I doubt many of us knew or cared that 1953 marked the centennial of John D Rockefeller’s first oil refinery. Way back in 1853, petroleum products with commercial applications were generally limited to kerosene as a cheaper alternative to whale oil for indoor lighting in the form of oil lamps. Building an oil refinery meant entering the lamp oil fuel market.
    Surprise! The founder of Standard Oil could not possibly have anticipated the huge demand for petroleum products arising from the need to fuel automobiles, ships and power plants in 1953, only 100 years later.
    Oil is never going away, but another nexus between new resources and new technology, is here today. Helium3 is the new resource and fusion is the new technology, poised to radically change society in 20 or 30 years. When He3 fusion technology extends from the current state of the art through the natural industrial evolution that all technology undergoes, the future is here.
    CNN recently ran an article on He3 fusion technology. Helium 3, an isotope of Helium 4, is very rare on earth. A few kilograms are available every year worldwide for scientific research. Generally, the only Helium 3 available on earth comes from the maintenance of atomic weapons. When tritium decays, Helium 3 is one of the by-products. Most governments, the United States included, offer the Helium 3 by-product of their nuclear weapons maintenance to physicists for use in scientific investigation.
    He3 fusion technology is interesting because it holds the promise of a radiation-free fusion reaction that could produce all of the power needed worldwide for many thousands of years – power for thousands of years with no radioactive waste, no carbon emissions, no pollution of any sort. In other words, Helium 3 is a perfect fuel.
    Fusion technology and the space industry are not part of my usual reading material, but this scientific breakthrough makes me realize that neither the oil industry nor the computer industry grew until all of the necessary components for commercial exploitation were present in the economy. Both exploded and changed society worldwide. We are at a similar moment concerning He3 fusion. There is just one problem. The only known source of Helium 3 in exploitable quantities is located on the surface of the moon.
    My newfound interest in fusion technology led me to find out what I could about Helium 3. As most of us do today, I went to my computer, accessed the Internet, and found hundreds and hundreds of sites discussing the practicality and reality of fusion energy generally, Helium 3 fusion in particular
    He3 technology exists. Principal researchers in the field report they are finished with the physics and science. Engineers are building the hardware to extract and utilize He3. The case for He3 mining on the moon is nicely presented in a video by Dr. Gerald Kulcinski, Associate Dean for Research, Grainger Professor of Nuclear Engineering, Director, Fusion Technology Institute, University of Wisconsin. Dr. Kulcinski’s video is available on the web.
    Dr. Robert Bussard, former Associate Director of the Atomic Energy Commission (predecessor to the Department of Energy) successfully operated a Polywell fusor in 2006. Dr. Bussard is on record in his own words at a Google corporate tech talk where he was a guest speaker shortly before his death. Bussard’s talk is available as a Google video.
    I am an old girl now who wants to understand, as much as any person can, the future world — perhaps it’s better to say a potential future world — which will be inhabited by my grandchildren and their kids.
    Helium 3 is potentially far more valuable than oil, and without doubt will be more disruptive to society than oil was. Scientists say 15 tons of refined He3 would provide all of the energy required by the United States for a year. That’s less than one railroad tanker car, with a value of $2-1/2 to $3 billion per ton.
    The true nature of humanity means this might not happen. Man has coveted that which is not his since he first walked the earth. Thirst for treasure of others burns in the heart and soul of venal corrupt men now as ever.
    China is ruled by corrupt old men. With its billions of citizens China is as always faced with massive shortfalls in critical industries, the energy sector is no exception. Faced with the unpalatable choice of downsizing its military, further rationing its dwindling supplies of fuel and electricity China seeks new, better sources of energy.
    And the thought of near-future, society-changing new technology, combined with ancient strong-arm tactics formulating part of Chinese foreign policy for centuries, shakes me up.
    China is an antagonist and a future opponent of the United States. China is a savvy political contender on the world’s stage. Just last month “China Daily” ran a piece in which China complained of being victimized by its overbearing, powerful, mean neighbors, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Japan. The Philippines intimidates China? Wait! This isn’t fiction. This is a news article from “China Daily” dated July 18, 2011.
    China fears its neighbors. Why? Oh, it’s clear now. All because these mean neighbors object to China seizing the Spratly Islands and other scattered archipelagoes in the China Sea which, coincidentally, sit atop massive oil reserves. Has this happened before? Has China been opposed to the US before?
    This line of thinking may be uncomfortable to those under 50 in America who cannot remember the great threat the Communist regimes of the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China posed to us before the late 80s. There has always been a history of conflict between China and her neighbors. China has a history of aggression, usually carried out clandestinely or covertly. China’s aggressive foreign policy is a fact.
    Younger generations of Americans may not recognize that in the 1950s China and the United States were at war. It’s better known as the Korean War. After the North Koreans attacked South Korea, the United States led a UN force to defend South Korea. North Korea was utterly defeated, The US-led forces were on the northern border of the Korean Peninsula when 600,000 screaming red Chinese soldiers crossed the Yalu River and attacked.
    China directly fought the United States with an army of nearly 1,000,000 men. The result was the stalemate and permanent division of Korea at the 38th parallel.
    Roughly 10 years later, in the early 1960s, China fought a nasty border war with India and seized territory for strategic purposes and resources. Ten or 15 years later, China fought another nasty border war with Vietnam. Throughout the 1970s and 80s, China and the then Soviet Union fought massive border disputes with division size formations engaged in combat.
    From the 1990s to the present day, China has been engaged in disputes and military brinksmanship with Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam over the oil-rich sea bottom in international waters. The Spratly Islands is a case in point. All of this is done while China proclaims to the world it is meek and harmless. Just ask a Korean War veteran how harmless China is.
    Like any normal person, I detest war. However, Gen. George Washington had it right when he said, “To secure the peace, we must be prepared for war.”
    Pondering the problems associated with fossil-fuel based power production, and the possible impact of carbon emissions on the climate (against the benefit to that society which reaches out and grasps new technology) leaves me satisfied, as I always am, that Americans are innovative by nature and unquenchable optimists by choice.
     No one knows how the future will unfold, but millions like me believe America will be a shining beacon far into her future.

    Dorothy H. Smith is a retired court reporter and freelance writer based in Jacksonville, Florida.

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