What part of superheated hydrogen drill boring into the Earth's core didn't set off an alarm with you? The whole idea reeks of barely veiled supervillainy, but even assuming that Potter has the best of intentions and is not, in fact, hiding a Cobra Commander mask in his back pocket, tapping a geothermal well where there is not already a natural vent brings a few risks along with it: volcanic eruptions, searing magma, earthquakes and crustal instability, to name a few. A volcano's only job is to provide an avenue for magma to exit through - but dramatic eruptions are only caused when that vent is blocked long enough to build up significant pressure. So if anything blocks, interrupts or otherwise interferes with the vent, then you have all the criteria for a volcano. Where's the nearest power plant to your house? Two miles? Five? Now, where's the nearest volcano? Yeah, well, pretty soon you're only going to need to know the one answer.

4 Warp Drive

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A lot of thought is being poured into new methods of space travel, and what scientists across the globe are discovering is that Star Trek is awesome, so fuck it: We're just going to do that. The term "warp travel" generally refers to a sort of jury-rigged workaround for the physical speed limit set by Einstein's Theory of Relativity, wherein one would propel space itself around a ship rather than power the ship through space. It's basically just exploiting a technical loophole in the universe, allowing us to travel at warp speeds by virtue of being total dicks to physics.

Take that, Physics, take it all!

How This Will Change The World:

The great thing is that interstellar travel could very well be a possibility, as the fundamentals of a warp drive are being nailed down by some of the brightest minds in the world right now. Truly feasible interstellar travel could well traverse that last great step for humanity: The creation of a global society. There are countless divides between people that allow us to morally separate ourselves from one another. But interstellar travel could not only bring about the usual benefits science fiction promises us, (namely some of that sweet green alien strange) but also the end of all internal Earth conflict. If there are suddenly a billion other accessible galaxies teeming with life, the "us vs. them" mentality gets scaled up accordingly. Now instead of mere interspecies fighting, it's Earth vs. Everybody Else (hey, let's not fool ourselves here: We're always going to bomb the shit out of somebody; interstellar travel just means you're less likely to be related to them).