Arguing about how many millions of years it will run for seems to be missing the forest for the trees. IMO the real message here is, holy crap magnetic bearings are amazing, now how do we get them into everything else?
> Spinning ferromagnets (such as the Levitron) can—while spinning—magnetically levitate using only permanent ferromagnets
> Pseudo-levitation constrains the movement of the magnets usually using some form of a tether or wall. This works because the theorem shows only that there is some direction in which there will be an instability. Limiting movement in that direction allows levitation with fewer than the full 3 dimensions available for movement (note that the theorem is proven for 3 dimensions, not 1D or 2D).
They're fantastic, move a lot of air and high static pressure, but the only noise that comes off them is the moving air, they're virtually silent. They also have a huge lifespan compared to fluid dynamic bearings, rifle bearings and sleeve bearings because there's no friction leading to wear on bearings.
For one, I think bearings wearing out is the main failure mode of most electric motors.
Currently, in all mechanical designs bearing losses are small, because if they were not the design would probably be unworkable or unfeasible. But consider, maybe there are new things that could come into existence which are not feasible today because of bearing losses.
The internet, for example, didn't make it newly possible to send mail to people, but it made it so much easier that it changed what it meant to send mail.