Talk-Polywell.org

http://www.project10tothe100.com

This site from google, is another of their "Don't be evil" marketing activity.
An activity they are willing to spend 10 million dollars on.

Post an idea that will benifit as much people as possible, and a vote will be held in Januari the 27th.

I'm not sure if a part of 10 million dollar would do anything usefull for the polywell project, but I'm dying to find out what happens when a project wins that really needs a whole lot more money to success.

Or would media attention like that influence this decission?
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/ ... 01440.aspx




And we would finally have an answer....
"Should google go nuclear?"

EDIT:
A call for a focussed voting on google's 10^100
viewtopic.php?t=711&start=15

I am curious has anyone else submitted a proposal to this Google contest to fund WB-8 ?

vernes asks:

Or would media attention like that influence this decission?
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/ ... 01440.aspx

In a previous Cosmic Log bloggers were thanked for putting pressure on the American government for funding.

I'm of the opinion that public attention is our best guarantee that the research goes forward. One way or another.

A heads up. It's a long shot. But on January 27th the list of the 100 finalists in the Google contest goes to a public vote. If one of those finalist proposals is to fund WB-8, then there are concrete steps that all of us could take.
First, vote for that project.
Second, get out the vote, contact family, friends, neighbors and associates to encourage them to vote for that proposal.
Third, contact your local newspaper and T.V. stations to offer your expertise for background on that proposal.
Some of the important points to stress might be:
1. This is a current news item at this time and encourage people to vote.
2. It could become the news story of the decade since a successful project could jump start mankind into the Boron Age. The Boron Age is a time period when Boron becomes the fuel of choice to provide mankind's energy needs.
3. A recent research project completed in September by EMC2 and funded by the United States Navy has greatly increased the probability that we will enter the Boron Age in the near future.
4. The Navy should be encouraged to continue this research and also to release to the public the results of the latest work.

Not to be a grammar Nazi, but it's Boron

Not Boran.

Thanks
For catching that, I have made the change.

From the Google contest FAQ:

Q: What criteria will be used to select the winning ideas? The following five criteria will be considered by the advisory panel in evaluating and selecting the winning ideas:

Reach: How many people would this idea affect?
Depth: How deeply are people impacted? How urgent is the need?
Attainability: Can this idea be implemented within a year or two?
Efficiency: How simple and cost-effective is your idea?
Longevity: How long will the idea's impact last?

I think we win hands down based on these criteria. Maybe not the "implemented within a year or two" part.

Reach: Everyone on the planet.
Depth: Profound history changing impact
Attainability: Well... maybe!
Efficiency: Species survival in exchange for (relative) peanuts. Maybe practical space travel as a bonus. That's pretty efficient.
Longevity: All remaining human existence.

What else comes close?

Joe;

What I submitted for the contest could be implemented in two years. It was for EMC2 to build a duodecahedron Bussard that would help to jump start mankind into the Boron Age.

I suspect that if any proposal to build WB-8 is chosen to be voted on, then if we can get out the vote, the resulting publicity may generate more interest and funds than the actual contest money.

Your comments where right on the mark!

Google just postponed the voting until March 17th.

As I write the rest of this, I realize I'm rapidly falling into wishful thinking as there isn't much time. I wish this had been on my radar a couple of months ago...

I suspect that if any proposal to build WB-8 is chosen to be voted on, then if we can get out the vote, the resulting publicity may generate more interest and funds than the actual contest money.

I agree. I don't expect to see any money awarded to WB-8 because there will be a bunch of other projects with short-term pay-off, and WB-8 is not the one which impacts everyone in 1-2 years. But the generated publicity could be incredibly useful.

But the publicity will not simply happen by itself. There needs to be materials which are aimed at:
1. general public -- how does this affect them
2. venture capitalists -- what needs to be funded, what are the risks
3. science geeks -- how does this compare with other fusion approaches, links to references; this can probably be subdivided further.

I imagine a YouTube video has not been presented. Posting one could be useful, even if it runs more than the contest max 30 seconds. This should be a teaser to point someone to a website that breaks this down alone the three lines I suggested above.

I know there are a number of good websites out there that deal in some respect with polywell fusion. Even the Wikipedia entry is pretty good. But is there one that anyone here owns which would be the starting point for multiple audiences?

Perhaps I should move this to the "Awareness" forum.

it's time

Well Google has done it again. They have postponed the date for voting. Only this time it is to a date uncertain. If ever.

it is (again) time.
http://www.project10tothe100.com/vote.html

So what happened to the Polywell item?

They might have known it was funded.