Long-Duration Motion Machines

Long-Duration Motion Machines are hypothetical devices designed to operate for extremely long periods without external energy input, while still respecting known conservation laws and thermodynamics. Unlike perpetual motion machines, they do not claim infinite operation or energy creation. Instead, they rely on ultra-slow energy dissipation, delayed equilibration, environmental energy harvesting, or probabilistic and extraphysical mechanisms. The key distinction is that long-duration machines eventually stop, while perpetual motion machines violate physical laws by claiming endless motion or energy output. These machines are often discussed in theoretical engineering, speculative physics, and borderline scientific proposals.

Long-Duration Motion Machines — Example

A hypothetical machine uses ultra-low-friction components, cosmic background radiation harvesting, and delayed thermal equilibration to keep moving for millions of years. It never produces excess energy and slowly loses motion over astronomical timescales. Unlike a perpetual motion machine, it obeys thermodynamics but exploits environmental and probabilistic factors to extend operation far beyond conventional machines.

by AbzuInExile January 24, 2026

Long-Duration Motion Machines

The natural and artificial systems that move things across geological timescales—glaciers that carve valleys over millennia, tectonic plates that rearrange continents over eons, and human institutions that change so slowly they might as well be geological. Long-duration motion machines include the slowly shifting course of rivers, the gradual uplift of mountains, and the federal government, which moves with approximately the same speed and predictability as a continent, just with more paperwork.

Example: "She studied glaciers as long-duration motion machines, watching them inch forward year after year, carving landscapes with patience that humans cannot fathom. When her grant was delayed by government bureaucracy—another long-duration motion machine—she found the irony unbearable. The glacier, she noted, was faster."

by Abzugal February 14, 2026

Short-Duration Motion Machines

Devices designed to capture, measure, or create movements that happen in fractions of a second—high-speed cameras that freeze bullets in flight, strobe lights that reveal the wingbeat of a hummingbird, and the shutter button on your phone that you press a moment too late, capturing your friend's blink instead of their smile. These machines reveal a world that exists too fast for human perception, a hidden realm of split-second decisions, fleeting expressions, and the exact moment a water balloon bursts.

Short-Duration Motion Machines *Example: "He bought a short-duration motion machine—a high-speed camera that could record 100,000 frames per second. His first project was filming a water balloon popping. The footage revealed structures and patterns no human eye had ever seen. His second project was filming his cat knocking things off tables, which was less scientific but more entertaining."*

by Abzugal February 14, 2026

Medium-Duration Motion Machines

The vehicles, tools, and systems that shape our experience of movement over hours and days—cars, trains, airplanes, and the humble elevator, which transforms a three-minute stair climb into thirty seconds of awkward silence with a stranger. These machines have redefined human experience, turning journeys that once took weeks into commutes that take hours, giving us more time to be somewhere else and less time to appreciate where we are. The ultimate medium-duration motion machine is the treadmill, which lets you move for an hour and go absolutely nowhere.

Medium-Duration Motion Machines *Example: "His car was a medium-duration motion machine that carried him through two hours of traffic daily. He listened to podcasts about productivity while being completely unproductive, trapped in a metal box, moving at 3 miles per hour, surrounded by other metal boxes also moving slowly. He called it 'commuting,' which is Latin for 'this is fine.'"*

by Abzugal February 14, 2026