An interesting question would be about qualitative changes, not just “I don’t have to ever charge my phone or laptop or electric car”. Military applications (handheld railgun! powered armor! electric fighter planes!) would definitely take off right away, sadly. Space exploration would change drastically if high specific impulse no longer costs a fortune per unit of thrust (single stage to Mars on ion engines! Powered landing, no more atmospheric breaking! No interstellar capabilities though, unless energy density is close to 100% rest mass, 100x that of fusion). One of the transformative changes would be similar to what happened in transition from wired to wireless communication: no power lines, no electric grids, no power distribution (and no power companies). Also, no oil/gas/coal burning, but that’s not very transformative, just a bonus. Anyway, most applications we can’t possibly imagine at this point. Closed-cycle breathing, with CO2->O2 conversion in exhaled air. Closed-cycle life support in general, actually. Imagination fails me.
Well, finally, flying cars! Actually, not even cars, closed-cycle power armor and cheap propulsion would mean one can just fly wherever and whenever, no car necessary.
An interesting question would be about qualitative changes, not just “I don’t have to ever charge my phone or laptop or electric car”. Military applications (handheld railgun! powered armor! electric fighter planes!) would definitely take off right away, sadly. Space exploration would change drastically if high specific impulse no longer costs a fortune per unit of thrust (single stage to Mars on ion engines! Powered landing, no more atmospheric breaking! No interstellar capabilities though, unless energy density is close to 100% rest mass, 100x that of fusion). One of the transformative changes would be similar to what happened in transition from wired to wireless communication: no power lines, no electric grids, no power distribution (and no power companies). Also, no oil/gas/coal burning, but that’s not very transformative, just a bonus. Anyway, most applications we can’t possibly imagine at this point. Closed-cycle breathing, with CO2->O2 conversion in exhaled air. Closed-cycle life support in general, actually. Imagination fails me.
Well, finally, flying cars! Actually, not even cars, closed-cycle power armor and cheap propulsion would mean one can just fly wherever and whenever, no car necessary.