A cruise liner with banks of oars like a Greek Trireme. The oars are automated to minimize crew requirements. I was thinking something along the lines of individual robots sitting in rows like the crews of old warships. A simple, repetitive task like rowing ought to be easy enough for a robot using today's technology.

I realize initial cost may be prohibitively (sp?) high, but if the funds could be fronted, I think it would more than pay for itself in tickets sold. Hell, Imagine the amount of people lining up to board one of these things.

"Mommy, mommy, I wanna get my picture with the robots!!!"

You could even include the passengers in the rowing work. Seriously, I'd love to do that for a little while, if only for the photo opportunity. Simply walk up to a robot oarsman, say "Mind if I cut in?" and the Robot oarsman will gladly stop rowing and get up to let you take his place, standing by to take your place and resume its duty in case you get tired or bored and want to stop.

Because of the close synchronization required in rowing accurately, there may be a limit on how many passengers can "assist" at any given time.

(edit: I removed the word "slave" since Wikipedia states that slaves were not used to crew triremes. Were this knowledge imparted to the passengers, I'm sure there would be more interest in this cruise since human rights activists would have no leg to stand on)
-- 21 Quest, Dec 18 2006

Trireme http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trireme
[21 Quest, Dec 18 2006]

[+] for this idea. I'd gladly row for a reduced fare intercontinental trip as there doesn't seem to be too much opportunity for that these days. The photo op would be an extra. If things work out, I hope to be in Europe later this year. :)

The visual of the ship would be great also.
-- nth, Feb 03 2007



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