Fusion hype has a familiar ring to it

We'll be coming back to this Holdren essay and what it says about techno-optimists' fascination with fusion, but for now, but for now, there's one aspect of one paragraph I'd like to focus on. The hype/investment bubble around companies like Commonwealth and Helion is very much a part of the tech story of the 2020s, including the most troubling aspects. If you replace fusion in this paragraph with AI or with humanoid robots, you will still have a statement that is both accurate and timely.From John P. Holdren of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs(Originally published in June 2024 and updated in January 2026.)But the recent hype about the chances for early success in the Earth-bound electricity-generation role has been far over the top, in my view, and is dangerous in the sense that large early investments in the false expectation of early commercial returns—which would be only the latest in the long cycle of overoptimism about fusion followed by…