Breaking the Laws of Physics

Free Energy

by Adrienne Markovic

With technology come cords. With cords comes dependence on electricity and the utility companies that monopolize our energy supply. It has been this way since the dawn of the modern electric utility in the 1880's. To the modern brain the concept of free energy, on a large scale, is ludicrous if not highly improbable. An Irish company called Steorn has claimed to have designed a way to create energy. This has provoked this resurgence in thought on this matter. This is not energy conversion, per se, as in solar power or wind power. They claim to have broken one of the core law's of physics, the law of conservation of energy. The thought of creating energy out of thin air is not a new claim however. The roots can be traced all the way back to the very days of Edison, with the revolutionary intellectual, Nicola Tesla.

Tesla discovered a thing called radiant energy. Tesla was a contemporary of Thomas Edison and was actually hired by him to work for his electric company. Tesla was the guy who discovered radio as well as laid the foundation for AC (alternating current) power, which we use today instead of DC (direct current). In his patent for the "free energy receiver" Tesla says the energy is from "the sun, as well as other sources for radiant energy, like cosmic rays". Tesla was not using traditional solar power but tapping into the very electro magnetic variants that exist naturally in the Earth and the effect of sun and cosmic rays on these charges. Cosmic ray is a deceptive term; it is actually more cosmic particles coming in from the farthest reaches of space, even beyond the sun. Tesla created a machine to accumulate and harness this radiant energy but he did not get to implement this technology on a large scale during his lifetime so it exists today in theory only, far from the minds of the public. If his idea were put into practice today we would have power towers transmitting free energy like radio waves.

Back to present day this little company called Steorn is creating a huge stir in the scientific and technological communities. Steorn was started in 2004 as a "specialist service company providing program management and technical assessment advice for European companies engaging in e-commerce projects". (Wikipedia 2007) They have only recently gained the attention of the masses with the introduction of Orbo, the perpetual motion machine. It is magnetically driven. On their website they say this technology supplies "free, clean, and constant energy". By free they mean "the energy is done so without recourse to external sources". Clean means "no emissions during operation". Constant means, "with the exception of mechanical failure the technology will continue to work indefinitely". (Steorn 2007) This is a hefty claim since the very definition of their claim directly opposes the energy law of physics stating that energy cannot be created or destroyed. Sean McCarthy of Steorn explains Orbo further, "What we have developed is a way to construct magnetic fields, starting and stopping at the same position, you have gained energy...The energy isn't being converted from any other source such as the energy within the magnet. It's literally being created. Once the technology operates it provides a constant stream of clean energy". (Wikipedia 2007)

So Steorn claims to be sitting on the biggest thing since sliced bread and we are supposed to take their word for it? Actually, they are in the midst of something they call the validation process. In late 2006 Steorn issued a challenge to scientists worldwide to test their technology. They were so serious about this that they even took out a full-page ad in Economist Magazine! After rigorous testing, and hopefully, validation by the scientists it will be open for the development community.

We are obviously still waiting for this futuristic technology to come out. The implications of this are monumental. What types of machinery and technologies could be powered by Orbo? The possibilities reach as far as the imagination. So what if Steorn is breaking the laws of physics! The real question is will it lower my bills?

http://www.sfgate.com

http://www.nuenergy.org/alt/tesla_energy.htm

http://www.steorn.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steorn

http://dispatchesfromthefuture.com

The Inevitable Future of the Web

Web 3.0

by Adrienne Markovic

There is a new buzzword floating around the Internet the last year. Just when marketers and techies were beginning to get a good feel for the Internet, philosophizing trend predictors begin to talk about the next trend in Web technology. There is much controversy about 3.0, with due reason. From all the dissonant voices there is a general consensus about the definition of 3.0. This new technology is being termed Web 3.0. Most folks are familiar with Web 2.0, a term coined in 2004 as a marketing term. To understand Web 3.0 one must understand Web 2.0, and Web '1.0'.

Web 1.0 is not a definition that was ever used, except as a term to differentiate Web 2.0. 1.0 would be the initial inception of the World Wide Web. The aim of the WWW was to make large amounts of information widely available. With that, it gave rise to the big bad commercial Internet. Remember the dot com mania of the 1990's? The natural evolution of the Web leads to 2.0. The hallmark of 2.0 is social networking and interactivity. These new trends begat new types of advertising and marketing, such as viral marketing. 2.0 is typified by such sites as www.myspace.com and various blog sites. Web 3.0 is much more complex to explain than these previous stages of Web development.

Many refer to Web 3.0 as the Semantic Web. This would be the first step necessary to get 3.0 on track and in fact, a subset of 3.0. The Semantic Web is already a trend being put into play by many top companies. Semantic ties together words and phrases to other relevant words and phrases. For example if you searched for "orchid" the Web would know that "plant" or "gardening" are related words and this too would show up and vice versa. Companies like www.amazon.com can give you recommendations based on your search criteria. This is a part of the Semantic Web. Taking this a giant leap forward is the goal of 3.0, artificial intelligence. AI is not at all like what would be portrayed in the media and apocalyptic Hollywood movies. It is not sinister. AI just means the Internet would think more like human beings.

John Markoff (2007) of The New York Times says 3.0 would make the Web "less of a catalogue and more of a guide" making functions on the web that can "reason in a human fashion". Ironically, some people already use the Web as if it was a database versus the social construct that it is presently. The data will be tied together instead of being an island unto itself. Looking at the idea of a 3.0 Web is like gazing into a crystal ball at the future, except that it is a projection based on trends that are taking place now which are very real. It is hard to believe that the groundwork for 3.0 is actually taking place now in a major way. This, according to John Borland (2007), is because it has "been hidden in big companies and research institutes". It is very much present however and is not going anywhere. Even the US government is taking stock and beginning to build intelligent technology! This is because artificial intelligence would take much of the time-consuming work searchers presently encounter to find what they need.

This technology has huge implications for the future of the Web, as well as other aspects of our life. Author Pete Morris believes it could include

• Microsoft and My Space reinventing the telephone

• Nokia looking to do Wi-Fi phones

• Getting paid read your e-mails

• The government starting to police virtual worlds

Morris also says that in order to achieve 3.0 would mean "the renewal of the Web's key index - the essential data that is catalogued by search engines". As for the future, we may even leave our purchasing decisions to our computer! Heidi Dawley believes that in the future our world will be "seen in three screens - the mobile, TV, and computer". We currently see ads in terms of behavioral and demographic marketing but in the future it will be more of a "predictive model". (Dawley 2007)

Web 3.0 is not without its critics. One of the best arguments out there is from a recent blog by Len Bullard (2007). He believes 3.0 will not be AI based but will have to address the problems of 2.0's interactivity. Web 3.0, according to him, should be a security-based web. This needs to happen regardless on the back end of the web, but it should not define 3.0, besides the fact 3.0 is already picking up inertia and cannot be stopped. Web 3.0 is inevitable and will be an aide to all of humanity that uses modern technology. That is, unless you live in the bush.

Len Bullard (2007) http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article2726190.ece

Heidi Dawley (2007) http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman2/publish/New_media_23/Coming_at_you_and_real_soon_Web_3_0.asp

John Borland (2007) http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/18395/?a=f