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Gears: The First Ever for Loops?? (No, Really.)

Tech

Sunday, 13th of April 2025

Okay so—this one’s not gonna be about software development. Not really. No frontend beef, no API drama, no JavaScript existential crises. Just vibes. And… gears. Yeah, actual metal ones. With teeth.

Hang on.

Before you scroll away thinking I’ve gone full steampunk on LinkedIn—hear me out. This is a story about how old tech isn’t really old. It's just… analog. And maybe even smarter than we give it credit for.

Blog post image

Let’s set the scene.

Thousands of years ago, some brilliant human (probably with wild hair and a serious "trust me" energy) looked at the sky, scratched their chin, and went:

“I bet I can model the movement of the sun and moon… using wheels. That click.”

And bam—gears were born.

But they weren’t just about turning things. These little guys were the first physical representations of ratios, cycles, and—dare I say it—logic.
Basically, if you squint hard enough, gears are just mechanical for loops:

javascript
for (every turn of the big gear) { 
    small gear turns x times; 
}

Tell me that’s not beautiful.

Fast forward to now:

We’ve got AI that can finish your sentences, recommend your next vacation, and probably knows when you last cried (thanks, YouTube algorithm). We’re living in a world of blazing-fast computation and cloud-based everything. And it’s amazing.

But here’s the thing that’s been rattling around in my brain like a loose bolt:

Why did we stop trusting the physical?

Gears don’t crash.

They don’t glitch.
They don’t ask for firmware updates at 3 AM.

They just work. Smooth, rhythmic, predictable. Like the universe on a good day.

Back in the day, people built mechanical computers. Literal physical devices, like the Antikythera mechanism, that could model celestial events with terrifying accuracy. And no electricity needed.

Sure, they were slower than your smartwatch. But they were tangible, understandable, and weirdly reliable.

So here are my (slightly unhinged) questions:

  • What if we didn’t ditch those old ideas… just because we have new ones?
  • What if AI could enhance physical systems instead of replacing them?
  • What if your grandpa’s clock could sync with GPT to remind you to call him?
  • What if we made kinetic sculptures that learn your vibe and dance accordingly?
  • What if we made a weather station out of brass and mahogany, but it’s actually connected to OpenWeatherMap via a Raspberry Pi?

You get the idea.

Maybe not all tech should be virtual.

There’s something beautiful about gears. You can see them working. You can hear the logic. You can feel the math.
In a world of abstraction and cloud-native-everything, maybe there’s room to bring the physical and digital back together for something cooler than either alone.

So yeah—gears. Ratios. Loops. And a little bit of wonder.