There is a Dublin company at the moment that is the talk of the planet. Based on the northside just a couple of miles from this newspaper's HQ, a company called Steorn is making a claim that, if true, would completely change the world as we know it.
Steorn have developed a technology called Orbo which promises free energy. If Orbo works then everything we think we know about energy or matter is wrong. Orbo, as its name kind of implies, would turn everything upside down.
The technology is based on an array of magnets aligned in a circle and when the machine starts moving it never stops. It keeps on going without an further energy input.
You can imagine that if this was a credible claim the electrical industry would be upset. The car industry would be very interested. And the oil industry would stop drilling. That none of this has happened tells you that the balance of global opinion thinks that Orbo is not going to work.
And I've got to tell you that I don't think it's going to work either. The technology is pretty much a perpetual motion machine. Plenty of people have filed patent claims for perpetual motion machines over the last few centuries and all of them have been found wanting.
The reason is that perpetual motion machines violate the principle of the conservation of energy. This states that energy cannot be created or destroyed. As energy and matter are interchangeable it might be easier to point out that what this really means is that you cannot create something out of nothing.
The idea that you can't create something out of nothing has a sound intellectual and experimental basis. People who do believe this are really entering the domains of religion or magic.
So the response of the scientific community to Steorn's Orbo technology has been scathing and savage. Steorn itself didn't help the situation when a demonstration in London failed a couple of weeks back. The company says it will work next time, in a few weeks or months.
You have got to admire them for self-belief. I hope that this will change the Irish world. Throughout history times of plenty have coincided with bursts of creativity. The great scholars and artists were sponsored by the rich which allowed them to create great buildings, great works of art and great ideas.
We've had nearly 20 years of unprecedented economic growth unparalleled in the world at this time. Is it not about time that our society started to push the boat out and come up with some ideas?
Steorn's idea might not work. But you have to admire their sheer self-confidence and affrontery to the norm. Here's an Irish company who are thumbing their noses at the established order.
Remember that no idea is ever wasted. Every idea begets another idea. No child has ever wasted their time playing with toys. It's how we learn and come up with new ideas.
We are very good in Ireland at importing ideas and even improving them. But we also have a very rich history of coming up new concepts.
Better a mad idea than no idea at all. Thank you, Steorn.
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I am not Irish, I am American with a mother from Mexico. But the music, poetry, and prose of Ireland have demonstrated the genius of Ireland for centuries. The Irish have been a blessing to many other countries, especially the U.S. Ireland doesn't need Orbo to prove its genius. But if Orbo is genuine, it will be yet another of many gifts the Irish have brought to the world.
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