GrimJack;999287 said:
Again, meh...
There's plenty of energy to be had, if we can figure out how to unlock it. I rather doubt perpetual motion is the way it will be done, but crazy things have been done in the past. Mr. DuPont was trying to turn lead into gold, and the junk from a failed experiment clogged the drain on his sink. Said gunk turned out to be plastic, and formed the basis of a worldwide empire that has lasted generations.
Still, I suspect that energy will be solved in rather mundane ways - better solar cells, collectors on space elevator docks, smaller and smaller nuclear reactors, something like this. Hell, someone will invent a widget that transforms heat directly into electricity, and we can stop worrying about 'global warming'.
Technically, I can turn heat into electricity right now. I call it Steam Power.
I realize that a couple hundred years ago, we didn't have any idea of computers and electronics and such. That's because our understanding at the time was pretty much crap. The things we thought were true were mostly because we were idiots and didn't understand anything about how the world works. I will freely admit that there is a lot of stuff we don't understand, but laws like the laws of thermodynamics and the laws of conservation of mass/energy are not just random crap like we had hundreds of years ago, they are laws that have withstood a culture of experimentation and testing (often with the goal of trying to break those laws and failing).
If perpetual motion is possible, it basically destroys the entire foundation of physics and modern science. So much of our understanding of the world comes from these basic laws, so if someone finds out how to break them it will pretty much mean we have to start over from scratch. However, no one has, and there's probably a reason for that (they are good laws).
Now, I will say this. I have no greater hope than for this to be real. I would be more excited than I have ever (or probably will ever) been if this is somehow real and verified. Sure, I'll be wrong, but I would welcome that if it meant free energy: basically, you're saying that magic is real and we are in the land of rainbows and unicorns (I'm an engineer remember: this kind of stuff is my unicorn). If you're familiar with the idea of supernatural powers and particularly skeptics like James Randi and Penn & Teller, you know their stance on that matter. I take a similar view: to paraphrase, basically, I would like nothing more than to see this stuff be real, because it would be probably the most amazing discovery in human history. If this man's engine is real, he will have a bigger effect on science and humanity than Newton, Einstein, Hawking, or any other human being to ever live. However, it's a hoax, because they (perp. motion machines) are all hoaxes, and we will have to go on living in the real world.
This whole thing is just a waste of the time and energy of people who could be doing something to better the world, but instead are spending it trying to trick people (or trick themselves) into believing some fantasy.
I don't know that energy can really be "solved"; we are constantly finding better ways to harness energy, but it's never free, and in the long run (the really long run I guess, like when the sun dies) we will run out. It would be nice to think that we're good until the sun burns out, but we are a long way from that and I don't see the world losing its reliance on non-renewable resources in my lifetime (and im only 23).