Bishop's "Mr. Fusion"

Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Tue, 16 Dec 1997 17:13:32 -0500

Hello. Last August (1997), I described a nanonuke design in which an array of
quantum-well lasers fired from all directions at a deuterium pellet; this was
an improvement over standard inertial-confinement methods. Forrest Bishop
replied that he had come up with a similar idea, called "Mr. Fusion", of which
his reply constituted the first public disclosure.

That language makes me think he might want to patent it, and I happen to be
reading up on patent law right now. I hope that Mr. Bishop has not yet filed
a patent application. A special statute probibits the patenting of nuclear
weapons. But as the book goes on to say: "However, if you've invented a
doomsday machine, don't be discouraged; you can be rewarded directly by making
an application with DOE (Department of Energy), formerly the Atomic Energy Comission."

Ref: "Patent It Yourself", 5th ed., David Pressman, Nolo Press, 1996.

Die dulci frere. Remember, I remain unsubscribed from the list, sending
messages only in special cases. And check out http://www.eurekalert.org

-- 
         sentience@pobox.com      Eliezer S. Yudkowsky
          http://tezcat.com/~eliezer/singularity.html
           http://tezcat.com/~eliezer/algernon.html
Disclaimer:  Unless otherwise specified, I'm not telling you
everything I think I know.