[MeganC]

“such a device would defy the laws of physics.”

Not at all. Such a device would cause us to reassess our understanding of the laws of physics.

Such things have happened before when reality informed us that our beliefs were misguided.

* The speed of sound was not a ‘sound barrier’.
* Microscopic life did indeed exist even if it could not be seen with the naked eye.
* Light doesn’t always travel in a straight line.
* Heavier-than-air aircraft are indeed possible.
* Objects of different weights fall at the same speed in a vacuum.
* You can split an atom.
* People could handle traveling faster than 60mph.
* Space flight is possible.
* Radio waves are real.
and etc.

If this is a real invention then it will no more defy the laws of physics than any other invention did. We’ll just have to take the new development into account is all.

[jonascord]

Whenever I see an article like this, I'm reminded that in 1900, there was an honest bill in Congress that would have closed the US patent office, since everything conceivable had already been invented.

The same thinking that something is impossible has always been been hiding in a corner.