Scott Adams' BlogPerpetual Motion Design
In my twenties I designed a perpetual motion device that works perfectly … in the future.
And by that I mean the device requires in one of its parts a type of material that did not yet exist but I imagined someday would. That imagined material would have three properties:
- Thin (perhaps 1/16 of an inch, or anywhere in that range.)
- Must block or substantially reduce a magnetic field
- Must not itself be attracted or repelled by a natural magnet
Every few years I like to check in with my smarter-than-me readers and ask if some new development in materials science has gotten us there yet.
You don’t need to tell me perpetual motion violates the rules of physics. I know that. No lectures needed.
But if the rules of physics disallow perpetual motion, they also disallow any future discovery of the material I described, because having that material would allow me to build my device.
So I’m just checking in to see if anyone knows of a newly developed material that meets my criteria. If you do, you are about to change the world.
(Regular readers know I like to use irrational optimism as a feel-good strategy for the moist robot container that you refer to as Scott. That’s what this is.)
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Scott Adams
Co-Founder of CalendarTree (the simple way to add lengthy schedules to your calendar)
Author of the best graduation gift ever
