Hacker News Reader

The latest reports are that Boyan Slat's invention has not worked well in practice. And experts are skeptical it will work as intended.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2019/01/17/experts-wa...

View on HN

It is built by experts.

Nobody know excactly how to do it. So it is great the first step is set.

The team will now alter the design to make it better.

From the Washington Post article: “Scientists unaffiliated with the project are skeptical that this system, or future iterations, will work as intended.” And they point out some of the reasons. May be Slat will prove them wrong. I was mainly provding an update as to what has happened since the 2017 BostonReview.net article.

The first test revealed problems that need to be addressed. That's what tests are for. The journalists reporting it does not work as wel as intended because a test version revealed issues that are being solved are being quite disingenuous if you ask me.

It's disingenuous to assume the problems are being solved. Many issues were pointed out before any large scale test but Slat has dismissed them and argued from authority.

This was in 2014 and now 4 years later a group of experts launched the first version.

Slat did not dismiss them because he said most are valid concerns.

But he is working with a large team of experts so most of the concerns might already be discussed.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com