• 0110010001100010@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Hundreds of years of innovation in water travel, and we come back to a sail. Granted, a metal one, but still a fucking sail.

    • Ephera@lemmy.ml
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      8 months ago

      Hard to beat the efficiency of just having energy delivered to you for free…

      • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Those damned sails stealing the earth’s winds for free.

        Global warming you know why it’s happening? Because the sails are all stopping the global winds! No winds to blow the heat away and it all warms up! BAN SAILS TODAY to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

    • protist@mander.xyz
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      8 months ago

      The scale of a sail needed to propel a giant cargo ship is really quite a bit different from what you might imagine on an old frigate, aka a “pirate ship.” Making a sail that large out of traditional materials is not feasible, and would require a ton of people to operate it. One of these monstrosities is staffed by probably less than 20 people, and labor is expensive, so this sort of computer operated sail can be both feasible and cost effective, whereas old school type sails were not

    • NegativeInf@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      What’s old is new again. Time is a flat circle. But really, technology has a good habit of compounding gains. One new idea applied to a hundred old ones really gets innovation running hot.