In 2018, Canada is ranked tenth in the world in nominal GDP. It is a rich developed country. Despite having an economy that is 11 times smaller than the USA or 7 times smaller than China, Canada has world competitive or world-leading projects in quantum computing, artificial intelligence, molecular nanotechnology, nuclear fusion and nuclear-molten salt.
If the 9 other top ten countries had the same level of future technology concentration as Canada based on economy there would be thirty times the level of nuclear fusion, quantum computing, AI and molten salt nuclear as Canada. If there was the same level of future technology concentration as Canada based upon developed population there would be one hundred times the level of nuclear fusion, quantum computing, AI and molten salt nuclear as Canada.
Nuclear Fusion
Canada has a leading nuclear fusion project, General Fusion. General Fusion has funding from Jeff Bezos, the Malaysian government and the Canadian government.
General Fusion is raising money for 70% scale fusion plant to be completed around 2023.
The Demo system will cost several hundred million dollars. General fusion is fundraising now. Several existing funders (Jeff Bezos, Canadian and Malaysian government) are likely participants in the next round. However, the fundraising cannot have actual disclosure until it is completed. As of late 2016, General Fusion had received over $100 million in funding from a global syndicate of investors and the Canadian Government’s Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) fund.
All of the individual components have been matured enough to enable integration into a prototype pilot plant.
Over the five years of the demo plant there will be design, construction and a nominal 18 months of testing.
The plasma injector component built so far is a 2-meter plasma injector. It will be a 3-meter injector for the pilot plant.
Titanium fabrication is with GE Additive as a partner.
The current component for has 14 pistons and was not to achieve plasma compression but to work out other engineering issues.
The demo system will have several hundred pistons. Perhaps around 500.
Quantum Computers and AI leadership
D-Wave Systems has been the leader in commercial sales of quantum annealing version of quantum computing. They sold their first $10 million 128 qubit system back in 2010. They are now selling 2048 qubit systems. D-Wave is based in Vancouver, BC.
A leading quantum computer startup company is Rigetti computing. Rigetti Computing is building the world’s most powerful computers to help solve humanity’s greatest problems. Rigetti is the only company deploying full-stack solutions for hybrid classical/quantum computing. They have made their 19-qubit quantum computer available to users online through Forest, the world’s first full-stack hybrid programming and execution environment. Rigetti will have a 128 qubit system in 2019.
Chad Rigetti is the founder and CEO of Rigetti and went to the University of Regina in Canada. The same University that Brian Wang of Nextbigfuture went for his undergraduate.
Canada has an artificial intelligence ecosystem.
Professor Bengio is a Canadian computer scientist, AI pioneer, and part of the “Deep Learning Conspiracy.” Decades ago, when deep learning theories about neural network operations failed to meet practical applications, financial support froze and the research fell into an AI winter. Canadian computer scientists, Geoffrey Hinton, Yann LeCun and Yoshua Bengio, kept working on Deep learning and neural networks. Hinton and LeCun were recruited to work with Google and Facebook, respectively.
Advanced molten salt and fast reactor fission
Terrestrial energy is a leader in developing a molten salt reactor. Terrestrial Energy has a headquarters in Ontario, Canada. There are close ties to Alberta and the oil industry. Canada’s oil and gas industry are very entrepreneurial but also engineering focused. They are open to new energy technologies with strong engineering. Terrestrial Energy is leading with design and other preliminary certifications to get molten salt reactors build in Canada and the USA.
The Moltex molten salt reactor has a deal to develop its prototype reactor in New Brunswick. The reactor module will generate 150 MWe and weight only 18 tons and take up 50 cubic meters. This is three times the power as the Nuscale 50 MWe reactor module and take less than one-eighth of the volume.
Canada has two major molten salt reactor designs and projects. China is the other country with two molten salt reactor projects.
Advanced Reactor Concepts (ARC) is currently working towards development of a safe, 100-megawatt small modular metallic fuel, sodium-cooled, fast reactor. The company uses proprietary PRISM technology from GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy and works with support from that company’s engineering and design teams. ARC and GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy have a development agreement.
In July 2017, New Brunswick Energy Solutions Corporation announced Advanced Reactor Concepts would develop this new advanced reactor in New Brunswick Canada.
Atomic memory
Robert Wilkow, University of Alberta, has used machine learning techniques to control scanning tunneling microscopes (STM). they have shown a full alphabet of 8-bit memory and 192 bits of music. They have substantially improved automated hydrogen lithography (HL) on silicon, and transformed state-of-the-art hydrogen repassivation into an efficient, accessible error correction/editing tool relative to existing chemical and mechanical methods.
They have scaled from a more manual control of microscopes for writing and erasing to full automation. The speed has been over a hundred times of the smaller scale writing of a handful of points at time. They are now showing hundreds of atomically written points.
They will now working on further scaling of arrays of scanning tunneling microscopes and making the system robust enough to work at room temperature.
Near-term applications would be to make hundreds of potentially more robust qubits based upon quantum dots.
Working with others on leveraging the existing capabilities for applications in the hundreds to thousands of quantum dots.
Improving the scaling to and artificial intelligence control to thousands of writes and beyond to eventually millions of chips per year.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.
So NBF is going from Next Big China to Next Big Canada? Too bad Prime Minister Justin Beaver just deepthroated Trump’s côck, eh? Oh…don’t know? Justin just announced that Canada will ONCE AGAIN bend over for America’s pleasure…possibly by this Friday: cnb.cx/2MBwzFQ Canada: That 51st star on the US flag that is perfectly visible to everyone else in the world but Canadians.
So NBF is going from Next Big China to Next Big Canada?Too bad Prime Minister Justin Beaver just deepthroated Trump’s côck eh?Oh…don’t know? Justin just announced that Canada will ONCE AGAIN bend over for America’s pleasure…possibly by this Friday:cnb.cx/2MBwzFQCanada: That 51st star on the US flag that is perfectly visible to everyone else in the world but Canadians.”
I have always wondered how can D-Wave make business since they have been on the market since 1999, they have tens if not hundreds of employees still sold only a handful of machines.
I have always wondered how can D-Wave make business since they have been on the market since 1999 they have tens if not hundreds of employees still sold only a handful of machines.
If Russia stops using dollars for most trade, how will you compare? Apples, and manipulated oranges.
US and Canada are best friends forever. New trade deal between US, Mexico and Canada puts Trump in a very strong position to force China fall in line. New trade rules will take chains off US companies which can out compete anybody in world. Expect Russian GDP to fall to number 13 in the next few years.
If Russia stops using dollars for most trade how will you compare? Apples and manipulated oranges.
US and Canada are best friends forever. New trade deal between US Mexico and Canada puts Trump in a very strong position to force China fall in line. New trade rules will take chains off US companies which can out compete anybody in world. Expect Russian GDP to fall to number 13 in the next few years.
General fusion is a boondoggle
Spoken like an ugly American.
General fusion is a boondoggle
Spoken like an ugly American.
Trudeau is building a wall to keep Americans out – and he’s going to make you pay for it.
The aluminum and steel tariffs are a disaster for US manufacturers.
The most promising tech I see highlighted here is Molten Salt reactor – primarily one using THorium as the fuel. Thorium is super abundant and the tech was developed as a prototype by Oak Ridge labs in the US over 50 years ago. Not good for making weapons and that fact explains why vastly inferior and more expensive Light-Water reactors got the contracts and the $$$. Talk about a bad decision! Wow! The FAST reactor using sodium is a bizarre thing in light of Molten Salt tech. Thorium is 1000x cheaper.
Trudeau is building a wall to keep Americans out – and he’s going to make you pay for it.
The aluminum and steel tariffs are a disaster for US manufacturers.
Fusion produces more energy per unit mass, and hydrogen is far more abundant than thorium. There’s an estimated 6 million tons of thorium reserves, vs 1.5e17 tons of hydrogen just in Earth’s hydrosphere. 25 billion times more. If we were using 10 million times more energy, thorium would run out way before hydrogen. But at that level of energy use, we’d be using 1000 times more energy than the total natural energy balance of the Earth. So we’d absolutely have to be massively space-faring to avoid frying the Earth with just the waste heat from that. And if we’re space faring, then there’s an additional ~2e24 tons of mostly hydrogen in Jupiter’s atmosphere. That’s another 10 million times more than on Earth. Yes, fusion is much more difficult, and it may take us a long time just to figure out how to make it work, let alone make it commercially viable, but your objection on the fuel source is complete nonsense.
This is a real danger. Canada needs to seriously & proactively take steps to make sure it doesn’t become a clone of the criminal nation to the south — you know – the one north of Mexico….
It seems to be. 30 years ago – Fusion was only 20 years away. Seems that carrot keeps moving. And then there’s the fuel source: hydrogen. This is derived from water. Fortunately – we don’t need water for anything else. Oh, they’ll argue that we have ample water to power fusion for 10 million years. But what happens when we’re using 10-million times the energy? THorium, specifically; Thorium-Fluoride is the nuclear fuel of the future.
The most promising tech I see highlighted here is Molten Salt reactor – primarily one using THorium as the fuel. Thorium is super abundant and the tech was developed as a prototype by Oak Ridge labs in the US over 50 years ago. Not good for making weapons and that fact explains why vastly inferior and more expensive Light-Water reactors got the contracts and the $$$. Talk about a bad decision! Wow! The FAST reactor using sodium is a bizarre thing in light of Molten Salt tech. Thorium is 1000x cheaper.
Fusion produces more energy per unit mass and hydrogen is far more abundant than thorium. There’s an estimated 6 million tons of thorium reserves vs 1.5e17 tons of hydrogen just in Earth’s hydrosphere. 25 billion times more.If we were using 10 million times more energy thorium would run out way before hydrogen. But at that level of energy use we’d be using 1000 times more energy than the total natural energy balance of the Earth. So we’d absolutely have to be massively space-faring to avoid frying the Earth with just the waste heat from that. And if we’re space faring then there’s an additional ~2e24 tons of mostly hydrogen in Jupiter’s atmosphere. That’s another 10 million times more than on Earth.Yes fusion is much more difficult and it may take us a long time just to figure out how to make it work let alone make it commercially viable but your objection on the fuel source is complete nonsense.
This is a real danger. Canada needs to seriously & proactively take steps to make sure it doesn’t become a clone of the criminal nation to the south — you know – the one north of Mexico….
It seems to be. 30 years ago – Fusion was only 20 years away. Seems that carrot keeps moving. And then there’s the fuel source: hydrogen. This is derived from water. Fortunately – we don’t need water for anything else. Oh they’ll argue that we have ample water to power fusion for 10 million years. But what happens when we’re using 10-million times the energy? THorium specifically; Thorium-Fluoride is the nuclear fuel of the future.
He’s going to pay. One way or another, Trump will make Justin Beaver pay personally for his anti-trump bs.
Why thank you! Doesn’t change the truth in what I said, tho. Noticed how you didn’t dispute that.
Interesting idea. What you do propose? Something like 80% of Canada’s exports and 66% of its imports are with America. That’s a lot they have to diversify, don’t you think? How much do you think Canada can do so? Just come up with a wild guess.
They pay their employees in magical PPP.
No they aren’t. New steel and aluminum plants are opening up in the US now and have been all year. Manufacturers just blame things on tariffs that are not tariff related.
He’s going to pay. One way or another Trump will make Justin Beaver pay personally for his anti-trump bs.
Why thank you! Doesn’t change the truth in what I said tho. Noticed how you didn’t dispute that.
Interesting idea. What you do propose?Something like 80{22800fc54956079738b58e74e4dcd846757aa319aad70fcf90c97a58f3119a12} of Canada’s exports and 66{22800fc54956079738b58e74e4dcd846757aa319aad70fcf90c97a58f3119a12} of its imports are with America. That’s a lot they have to diversify don’t you think?How much do you think Canada can do so? Just come up with a wild guess.
They pay their employees in magical PPP.
No they aren’t. New steel and aluminum plants are opening up in the US now and have been all year. Manufacturers just blame things on tariffs that are not tariff related.
Spoken like someone who doesn’t realize that “The Ugly American” was the hero of the book.
They have one working quantum computer that grinds out 3.2 bitcoin/minute.
If Russia stops using dollars for most trade, how will you compare?” Currency exchange rates have been an established technology for a few thousand years now. People will be able to work it out.
Are you serious? We are going to run out of water? Google “Pacific Ocean” and calm your fears.
Spoken like someone who doesn’t realize that The Ugly American”” was the hero of the book.”””
They have one working quantum computer that grinds out 3.2 bitcoin/minute.
If Russia stops using dollars for most trade” how will you compare?””Currency exchange rates have been an established technology for a few thousand years now. People will be able to work it out.”””
Are you serious? We are going to run out of water? Google Pacific Ocean”” and calm your fears.”””
Yep, he single handedly saved Vietnam from communism with his can-do attitude and Yankee ingenuity.
Yep he single handedly saved Vietnam from communism with his can-do attitude and Yankee ingenuity.
Canada may have a lot of tech start-ups. But they just gets bought by the US and moves there afterward.
These new accounts and exuberant plugs. LWR have nothing to do with nuclear weapons unless you consider propelling a warship. Thorium is literally dirt without uranium.
Canada may have a lot of tech start-ups. But they just gets bought by the US and moves there afterward.
These new accounts and exuberant plugs. LWR have nothing to do with nuclear weapons unless you consider propelling a warship. Thorium is literally dirt without uranium.
> “Nobody looks at 1H as a fuel resource.” Not yet (unless you count pB11, but that also requires boron). Still, even if we’re talking deuterium, it’s 0.02% of hydrogen in general, and can be separated out. Tritium can be bred from deuterium. Further down the line, I expect CNO fusion will be doable, as its output is very strongly dependent on temperature, and temperature is the easiest parameter to increase. CNO burns 1H, with C, N, and O as catalysts (unless you want do pulsed CNO, which is more accurately described as proton capture).
> Nobody looks at 1H as a fuel resource.””Not yet (unless you count pB11″” but that also requires boron). Still even if we’re talking deuterium it’s 0.02{22800fc54956079738b58e74e4dcd846757aa319aad70fcf90c97a58f3119a12} of hydrogen in general and can be separated out. Tritium can be bred from deuterium.Further down the line I expect CNO fusion will be doable as its output is very strongly dependent on temperature and temperature is the easiest parameter to increase. CNO burns 1H with C N and O as catalysts (unless you want do pulsed CNO”” which is more accurately described as proton capture).”””
Previously mothballed old plants have been reopened. They are inefficient and globally uncompetitive. No investment in new smelting capacity because metals companies aren’t dummies and know the tariffs might disappear in six months with erratic Trump at the helm. Meanwhile, American manufacturers are losing marketshare to international competitors who don’t face inflated metals prices. I am experiencing this first hand…
Previously mothballed old plants have been reopened. They are inefficient and globally uncompetitive. No investment in new smelting capacity because metals companies aren’t dummies and know the tariffs might disappear in six months with erratic Trump at the helm. Meanwhile American manufacturers are losing marketshare to international competitors who don’t face inflated metals prices. I am experiencing this first hand…
Nobody looks at 1H as a fuel resource. 4 proton reaction has almost nil probability in the sun as I understand.
Nobody looks at 1H as a fuel resource. 4 proton reaction has almost nil probability in the sun as I understand.
> “Nobody looks at 1H as a fuel resource.”
Not yet (unless you count pB11, but that also requires boron). Still, even if we’re talking deuterium, it’s 0.02% of hydrogen in general, and can be separated out. Tritium can be bred from deuterium.
Further down the line, I expect CNO fusion will be doable, as its output is very strongly dependent on temperature, and temperature is the easiest parameter to increase. CNO burns 1H, with C, N, and O as catalysts (unless you want do pulsed CNO, which is more accurately described as proton capture).
Previously mothballed old plants have been reopened. They are inefficient and globally uncompetitive. No investment in new smelting capacity because metals companies aren’t dummies and know the tariffs might disappear in six months with erratic Trump at the helm. Meanwhile, American manufacturers are losing marketshare to international competitors who don’t face inflated metals prices. I am experiencing this first hand…
Nobody looks at 1H as a fuel resource. 4 proton reaction has almost nil probability in the sun as I understand.
Canada may have a lot of tech start-ups. But they just gets bought by the US and moves there afterward.
These new accounts and exuberant plugs. LWR have nothing to do with nuclear weapons unless you consider propelling a warship. Thorium is literally dirt without uranium.
Yep, he single handedly saved Vietnam from communism with his can-do attitude and Yankee ingenuity.
Spoken like someone who doesn’t realize that “The Ugly American” was the hero of the book.
They have one working quantum computer that grinds out 3.2 bitcoin/minute.
“If Russia stops using dollars for most trade, how will you compare?”
Currency exchange rates have been an established technology for a few thousand years now. People will be able to work it out.
Are you serious? We are going to run out of water? Google “Pacific Ocean” and calm your fears.
He’s going to pay. One way or another, Trump will make Justin Beaver pay personally for his anti-trump bs.
Why thank you!
Doesn’t change the truth in what I said, tho. Noticed how you didn’t dispute that.
Interesting idea. What you do propose?
Something like 80% of Canada’s exports and 66% of its imports are with America. That’s a lot they have to diversify, don’t you think?
How much do you think Canada can do so? Just come up with a wild guess.
They pay their employees in magical PPP.
No they aren’t.
New steel and aluminum plants are opening up in the US now and have been all year.
Manufacturers just blame things on tariffs that are not tariff related.
Fusion produces more energy per unit mass, and hydrogen is far more abundant than thorium. There’s an estimated 6 million tons of thorium reserves, vs 1.5e17 tons of hydrogen just in Earth’s hydrosphere. 25 billion times more.
If we were using 10 million times more energy, thorium would run out way before hydrogen. But at that level of energy use, we’d be using 1000 times more energy than the total natural energy balance of the Earth. So we’d absolutely have to be massively space-faring to avoid frying the Earth with just the waste heat from that. And if we’re space faring, then there’s an additional ~2e24 tons of mostly hydrogen in Jupiter’s atmosphere. That’s another 10 million times more than on Earth.
Yes, fusion is much more difficult, and it may take us a long time just to figure out how to make it work, let alone make it commercially viable, but your objection on the fuel source is complete nonsense.
This is a real danger. Canada needs to seriously & proactively take steps to make sure it doesn’t become a clone of the criminal nation to the south — you know – the one north of Mexico….
It seems to be. 30 years ago – Fusion was only 20 years away. Seems that carrot keeps moving. And then there’s the fuel source: hydrogen. This is derived from water. Fortunately – we don’t need water for anything else. Oh, they’ll argue that we have ample water to power fusion for 10 million years. But what happens when we’re using 10-million times the energy? THorium, specifically; Thorium-Fluoride is the nuclear fuel of the future.
The most promising tech I see highlighted here is Molten Salt reactor – primarily one using THorium as the fuel. Thorium is super abundant and the tech was developed as a prototype by Oak Ridge labs in the US over 50 years ago. Not good for making weapons and that fact explains why vastly inferior and more expensive Light-Water reactors got the contracts and the $$$. Talk about a bad decision! Wow! The FAST reactor using sodium is a bizarre thing in light of Molten Salt tech. Thorium is 1000x cheaper.
Trudeau is building a wall to keep Americans out – and he’s going to make you pay for it.
The aluminum and steel tariffs are a disaster for US manufacturers.
General fusion is a boondoggle
Spoken like an ugly American.
If Russia stops using dollars for most trade, how will you compare? Apples, and manipulated oranges.
US and Canada are best friends forever. New trade deal between US, Mexico and Canada puts Trump in a very strong position to force China fall in line. New trade rules will take chains off US companies which can out compete anybody in world. Expect Russian GDP to fall to number 13 in the next few years.
I have always wondered how can D-Wave make business since they have been on the market since 1999, they have tens if not hundreds of employees still sold only a handful of machines.
So NBF is going from Next Big China to Next Big Canada?
Too bad Prime Minister Justin Beaver just deepthroated Trump’s côck, eh?
Oh…don’t know? Justin just announced that Canada will ONCE AGAIN bend over for America’s pleasure…possibly by this Friday:
cnb.cx/2MBwzFQ
Canada: That 51st star on the US flag that is perfectly visible to everyone else in the world but Canadians.