Must energy conservation be local? Would it be "legal" for -- say -- energy to be spent/dissipated (entropy increase) at one location leading to an apparent over-unity effect ("free" entropy decrease) somewhere else? I'm not talking about energy transmission through wires or EM radiation... I mean something apparently disconnected yet coupled.
I ask because I've encountered such ideas in sci-fi before and couldn't think of a reason why they're forbidden -- though I have no idea how you would do such a thing.
Must energy conservation be local? Would it be "legal" for -- say -- energy to be spent/dissipated (entropy increase) at one location leading to an apparent over-unity effect ("free" entropy decrease) somewhere else? I'm not talking about energy transmission through wires or EM radiation... I mean something apparently disconnected yet coupled.
I ask because I've encountered such ideas in sci-fi before and couldn't think of a reason why they're forbidden -- though I have no idea how you would do such a thing.