Theory 27/The rival says the effect is not there/Energy
Pilot or Extrapolation?
The claim
Fusion performance cannot be settled without a reactor-scale pilot because the physics is coupled.
01The rival explanation
Established scaling laws extrapolate reliably, and a pilot is an engineering step rather than a scientific test.
02What would tell them apart
Independent designs should extrapolate to different performance if coupling matters, and converge if scaling laws hold.
03Prediction
Extrapolations should diverge across designs.
04Refutation
If extrapolations converge, the rival wins.