this post was submitted on 14 Mar 2026
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"a solution in search of a problem" does remind me of cryptocurrency a lot
While a lot of the time the applications of a technology precede it's discovery, it's certainly not ultra rare for the discovery to prompt the applications, because nobody ever gave much thought to 'what can we do with X'.
Hah yeah that reminds me of the IBM CEO in 1943 saying "there's a world demand for maybe 5 computers" because he couldn't fathom what could be done with them. it was a pretty great article overall, discussing how the same was true for solar ... nobody could imagine it powering the world just 20 years ago.
https://ourworldindata.org/cheap-renewables-growth
The difference is, we already use magnets everywhere.