Re:Why things might have taken so long
by daveFNbuck on Thursday January 04, 2018 @06:51AM
(#16069648)
Human-powered flight does exist, it's just not very good because people are weak and heavy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human-powered_aircraft
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Well, leaving aside the problem of taking off (which today is improving thanks to electric motors), I guess one could say that gliders[1] are the closest we can have to human-powered flight and it's highly efficient in terms of energy consumption
It's "not very good" not because people are this or that, but because... it isn't very good yet: which means it needs to get better.
That's exactly what inventing is about: making (existing) things better, until they're so much better, they become a different thing altogether.
Re:Why things might have taken so long
by mannykannot on Thursday January 04, 2018 @11:46AM
(#16071738)
> It's "not very good" not because people are this or that...
Denying reality is for daydreaming; it will not get anything invented. Sufficiently advanced technology may be indistinguishable from magic, but it isn't actually magic.