Please go ahead and post about things even if you don't totally understand them. This is not a star chamber proceeding, even if entrophy is at stake. I doubt that anyone's perpetual motion machine is going to be wrecked because of something said here.

Mass media is already doing an excellent job at spreading false pseudoscience views. There is absolutely no reason to help it.

Actually...

There are tantalizing hints from quantum mechanics and fringes of classical physics of nearly free energy (not including solar here).

While 100% perpetualy motion is impossible, it should be possible to approximate it close enough for the expected duration of life on Earth.

I'm just holding my breath for the necessary macroengineering projects to begin...

Well put Texrat. There's still so much we don't know about physics, that saying we can't do something is simply putting an intellectual block on something that may as yet be possible. We just don't know how yet.

Lord Raiden: it's not the stuff we don't know, but the stuff we DO know. If we are on the verge of such a discovery (break laws of thermodynamics, entropy, etc), putting it in the perspective of 'lowering your electricity bill' is epic shortsightedness. It's like saying the main impetus of discovering lasers was to replace sticks as pointers.

That said, there might be cheaper energy sources available than we currently use, or even are just considering at the moment. That, however, has no bearing on the perpetum mobile, it's just a question of efficiency (cost and effort required to obtain a certain amount of energy).

Yeah, don't read too much into my vague blathering there, Raiden.

We know that certain Laws are indeed laws because we enjoy the benefit of their predictions on a consistent basis. I'm not talking about violating those laws; rather, about taking advantage of principles as yet undiscovered.

I'm delighted that my post, essentially poking fun at something I saw, actually got substantive comments. When it isn't being infuriatingly wrong-headed (i.e., when it disagrees with me), this is quite an interesting group of people.

Yeah, you're alright when you're not channeling Karel J.

Funny I thought the Thread title referred to the non-stop frenetic activity generated on this forum by every Nokia twitch.

You know what I mean, the non-stop opinions of what Nokia should do. The non-stop polls and wish lists of what posters want to see. The lemming like rush to find dumb reasons to start new Threads before anyone else has the same gormless notion.

You know the sort, is the N900 too thick, is the N900 too expensive, is the N900 too cheap, is the N900 the wrong colour, is the N900 [insert banality of choice]....... and so on and on and on and on. Really there is no end to it.

The challenge is to usefully harness the energy expended by all this headless activity. If done successfully the end result might power a small country.

I don't know about particular example but energy can be gained by not using earth raw material resources. There is always initial investment, ROI, lack of popularity, and maintenance costs attached. And there are side effects, unintended consequences.