This was my thought too. There's a lot of power available from that whole array. A municipal effort to harness that would be well worthwhile. I can't imagine they suffer for power there though...
literally all you need is a spinning magnet around a coil and that is the definition of a generator. The magnets spin and push the electrons in the coil creating flow, which creates electricity.
That makes so much sense. I finished a six-week unit on electricity and induction recently, and it fundamentally didn't make any sense. Got a 95 on the exam, but didn't connect these dots...
I mean... would you stick around in an ancient village to mill grain? I wouldn't. The windmills are cool, but we have better windmills now. The site could be turned into a historic landmark or something, but it's not disheartening to know that the village and his children have better lives than that.
I personally find it disheartening because it's such an old tradition that is deeply tied to the area and no one is interested in learning how to care for it. The windmill not only helps with the wind in the area but it also grinds the wheat grains they use to make bread with.
I'm sure that someone will take over if the windmills are indeed necessary to their way of life, and I definitely wouldn't find it upsetting that the villagers would "have better lives", but if no one does indeed take it over then all the knowledge passed down through caretakers over hundreds and hundreds of years would most likely be lost to the ages.
This very much so. When I learned about post Roman Empire history, I learned that locals would disassemble Roman buildings for building materials. At the moment I couldn't believe how people could deconstruct the ancient Roman structures for something as measly as castle wall filler, but after thinking about that it finally made sense. People are always people, which means survival is always a top priority. Once survival has been met, then other desires such as preserving history come second. It seems selfish in the long run, but in the moment of time it makes perfect sense. Why would I want to spend and devote my entire life to maintaining a historic landmark when I can forward my career in the modern world or raise and family and move on to bigger better things?
There are a million other historic sites you could devote your life to outside of Iran. "I would consider it" is 100% BS. You'll think about it, and how quaint and wholesome it is, and then you'll enjoy the comforts of a clean mattress and hot showers and air conditioning like everyone else. Because, unless someone is passionate enough to make those sacrifices, they shouldn't really be devoting their life to a grain mill anyway.
I know that you probably have access to the internet that isn't restricted by the government in any way, and that you probably have an elected, secular government. I know that you're educated enough to read, and probably much more. If you're not American, you probably have healthcare. If you are American, there are several different military and service organizations that offer healthcare, many of which accept people with no qualifications and provide paid job training. Not ideal, but the National Guard taught me job skills that got me through college and the healthcare (which is amazing) costs me something like $42/mo.
Your life in the first world is something you look at and see the potential in. There's a chance that you could land a gig paying $40k next week and rent a nice apartment. My first real job, which I got at 21 with no college degree, paid $80k. It was in sales and hustled my ass off every day to keep that job. Sales sucks, but they take anyone and if you can make money they'll keep you around forever.
Move to Africa or Iran or South America to care for some heritage site in the middle of nowhere and you lose that. Life is worrying about things like "Will I get killed for my religious convictions or nationality?" or "Is this a blister on my foot, or a parasite that will lead to my leg getting amputated?"
I've been poor in America. I've also seen the poor in a country like Afghanistan. There's no comparison. I don't know you, and I don't know how hard your life has been, but you're trying to pull this "I'd consider it" card when you really wouldn't. Either you'd already be obsessed with it, you'd already be doing it, or you'll never do it. No shame in that, I'd never do it either, but don't act like living in the Iranian desert and dying alone, all for a grain mill, is on the bucket list.