As a follow-up to my recent diatribe against “quantum” pseudoscience, here’s a shocking bit of news, reported by the Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe podcast:

Over $18,000 have been raised on Indiegogo to fund James Robitaille’s project to build a perpetual motion machine.

“[…] our designs use high voltage/low current construction, which gives us a HUGE surplus of energy. A portion of the surplus energy is fed back to self-power the motor….”

This machine would generate so much energy, it would feed back onto itself to further generate more energy, so that the machine in the end would consume no energy and be able to provide clean, pollutant-free energy for the whole world! Give money now!

These perpetual motion machines are impossible given the first and second laws of thermodynamics. A reversal of our basic understanding of the laws of physics would be a massive game-changer. We are led…