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Yeah, people always seem to forget that most deserts have life. Then there's the clans of nomads that live in the Sahara. The need for, at least initially, mili
by WhoBeI 11y ago
Yeah, people always seem to forget that most deserts have life. Then there's the clans of nomads that live in the Sahara. The need for, at least initially, military protection and patrols. Someone has to keep the power lines/pipes from being destroyed. And, of course, the countries surrounding the area aren't the most stable either.
The systems needed to control the automated surveillance drones coordinating the security teams would be interesting though.
A green energy solution would be nice but I have a hard time seeing covering Sahara in solar panels being it. To many variables, to big a project. Besides everybody want local solutions for national security reasons anyways.
>> "I think the past 263 years (since Franklin's kite experiment) have shown us electricity is a way of progressing
It would be more fair to give this honor to Faraday since he invented the electrical motor and other uses for electricity while Franklin proved lightning is electricity and invented the lightning rod. Having your house not burn down is beneficial to progress, in that you can spend less time building houses, but doesn't really fuel progress in itself.
I've always felt that Franklin steals the thunder by having a better, more dramatic story - the kite and all that. A genius in his own right though.
- pm90 11y agoWe don't need to cover the whole desert. The Sahara desert is HUGE: almost the size of China itself. We would probably use only a small fraction of the desert for energy production, and (hopefully) use the regions which affect the environment least. As for security, I think its a tough question but not without solutions. Instead of treating the nomads as enemies, maybe we could explain to them the purposes of the project and reach some kind of understanding. This is a problem for diplomacy: not something that interest most HN readers. As for Faraday not being recognized: there are tons of scientists who've made important contributions that are required for everything that we take for granted today. Franklin is probably more famous for being an astute statesman rather than as a scientist.