maybe... but a good chunk of big fusion break throughs lately have been due to machine learning. And just general material science breakthroughs.

For example building someone like ITER in the 1980's.. would have been very difficult to boarder line impossible.. since we just didn't have the super conducting magnets that could handle the current needed for plasma confinement needed.

stellarator shouldn't have been do able in the 80's due to not having machine learn algorithm for plasma confinement.

And internal confinement laser fusion wouldn't have been do able without the laser optics for it.

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Ya.. it might have been possible to rush to these technologies if you where diverting a good chunk of the GDP to this alone and willing to rapidly prototype full scale reactors attempts in parallel