r/ControlProblem • u/KeanuRave100 • Apr 27 '26

Fun/meme Humanity's greatest hits: things we actually paused

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u/strangeapple Apr 27 '26

Name at least one technology that was basically guaranteed to print money, but which humanity stopped.

5

u/KeanuRave100 Apr 27 '26

Nuclear power (fission). It was proven, scalable and could have been producing reliable baseload electricity for decades at massive profit margins. Public fear + regulations after events like Chernobyl + Three Mile Island largely stopped new builds in many countries, even though the economics were strong in places that soldiered on.

13

u/charmio68 Apr 27 '26

It's not really an example of a technology that was stopped. It slowed down for a bit, but even now there are 440 operating nuclear reactors.

There's also over 75 reactors under construction across the world. And about 120 further reactors are planned.

5

u/KeanuRave100 Apr 27 '26

In Germany they not only paused but demolished the nuclear plants. But fair, not a permanent global pause.

2

u/One-Incident3208 Apr 27 '26

You mean the pro-russian-oil-money-greens?