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.
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
Get the Long-Duration Motion Machines mug.Movement that occurs over years, decades, or centuries—the drift of continents, the erosion of mountains, the slow transformation of a person from eager youth to jaded adult. Long-duration motion is the realm of glaciers, grief, and gradual change, too slow to perceive in real time but undeniable when you look back. It's why your parents seem to have aged overnight (they didn't, you just weren't paying attention) and why the photo of you from ten years ago looks like a different person (it was, basically).
Example: "He didn't notice the long-duration motion of his own aging until he saw a photo from college. The person in the photo had more hair, fewer worries, and a smile that hadn't yet learned what the world was like. He stared for a long time, then went for a walk, aware that even as he walked, he was still moving through time, becoming someone else."
by Abzugal February 14, 2026
Get the Long-Duration Motion mug.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
Get the Long-Duration Motion Machines mug.