The basic action is, but not the mechanism.
My idea....think spiral channels inside the tube with the cog shown attached to a piston that rides in the spiral channels. As you turn it and force is transferred, it forces the piston forward because the spiral turns rotational force into linear force. With a spring, you apply an opposing linear force so the piston only moves when those forces are unbalanced. This spring could be tunable so you select where the balance point of those forces is, thus selecting the maximum force you could apply before it changes gears for you. When there's more force applied, it "lowers" the gear, when less it automatically goes up a gear. No electronics or battery required.

That was quite good.

But man, that 4th issue is a doozy. Learning that "hard work pays off" is difficult when it just really doesn't, at least not anymore. Massive income inequality, zero class mobility, and on and on. We feel like relatively easily replaceable cogs in a relatively pointless machine because WE ARE.

We hear lots of stories about people that manage to buy in, feel like they are doing something important and making a real impact, enjoy some period of good job satisfaction...

...and then all too often, they end up looking like saps when the company that they work for gets bought out by some massive faceless corporation that doesn't value their years of loyal service at all, at which point they get replaced by A) a robot, B) an outsourced sweatshop laborer in a 3rd world country that can be payed a fraction of the local rate, C) a younger and more compliant hire that will inevitably have a massive turnover rate, but who cares because there are plenty more where that came from, or D) the cokehead nephew of the new CEO that needs a job to keep him out of trouble, and hey, might as well keep things in the family, right?

Maybe I'm just a bitter, late Gen-X'er.

The thumbnail image for this video has been updated - thumbnail added by eric3579.

I could see this being much safer (and therefore more viable) than the Hyperloop.

Although I'm curious how it could ever be more efficient than just using an electric train.

As far as non-standard trains climbing steep grades, "cog railways" have existed over 150 years. (these aren't cable-pulled funiculars)

A typical teenage heavy metal guitar player puts cogs to shame.

"as if they all have one, and it's the only thing "

Except it wasn't implied. It wasn't suggested. In fact I distinctly said, "This grudge holding helps no one." That was key...

The criminal history we put upon them (and others, mostly poor) is merely one racist cog in the wheel. For example--whites with a criminal record are still more likely than blacks to get a job. HOWEVER, these policies are one of those overreaching, significant impacting bullshit excuses we have.

They are used to justify racism. "See, it's those people always in jail." It prevents jobs when whites can deny as many as possible to avoid EO laws. "See, we couldn't hire blacks because they have criminal records..." It stops college admissions (Because blacks in jail are not blacks in college.) It takes away the power to vote.

I always had this opinion as I was going through the school system.
Hearing his rant, I realize that somewhere along the way, people realized the transient nature of human paradigms, like government and social structure, and decided to focus education on the constant factors of human existence: Math, Science, the world.
I can also justify education of history for allowing us to not repeat the mistakes the idiots before us made (though that's a hit or miss most of the time).
While I agree with his complaints, I'd rather not have an educational system that simply geared people for functioning in the current society. We're always fighting against the educational system from turning us into cogs in a machine as it is, but imagine if our schooling concerned itself primarily/solely with matters of state? We'd fully realize that nightmare of an assembly-line workforce.

I wanted to see the cog wheels in action. Still....pretty.

???????WHY???THANK???YOU???sifty???????

...but,,,errr...there must be a disturbance in the force...loose cog....

Not my birthday...but thank you you.

The thumbnail image for this video has been updated - thumbnail added by oritteropo.

Ahhhh, he must be a drone of the Cult of the Grand HR Machine in action. Simultaneously knocking down radical ideas and then capitalizing upon the innovations of the radical.

Intellectuals are specific cogs for creating ideas. But! their ideas should be designated for their specific quadrant of weapons/systems engineering and never seep into political culture.

WARNING, Noam Chomsky, your views violate the nature of the GHRM.

The GHRM has determined you no longer qualify as a person. Your designation is now: food. Be happy and exercise the remainder of your free will:

Would you like to be converted into solid food or liquefied supplements?

@chingalera
/chuckles
oh i know man.

my comment was with tongue firmly planted in cheek but my basic point remains the same.

some people have to make concessions in order to survive in this fucked up system.
maybe they have children.
maybe they are married with an asston of debt hanging over their heads.

i am an anarchist.
so i have arranged my life in a way where my participation in this zombie system is shaved to a bare minimum but i also have to recognize that some people do not have that luxury.since i am not living their lives i refuse to judge them.

just look at the comments here.
your assertion of an imagined polemic plays out in this thread,quite conveniently making your point.

we have @bobknight33 posting the heritage foundations position almost verbatim (thanks for responding bob,i like when you participate.sincerely),in regards to capitalism.

then we have @Sagemind posting a more "left" leaning comment.

and then we have the always ironic @lantern53 bemoaning the ills of government.yet his salary is provided by taxpayers,and hence the very government he is deriding.he is such a closet socialist.(loooove you lantern../hugs).

yet all these positions have validity.

the governments role should be criticized and examined.
corporations should be exposed for their undue influence.

this is not a simple issue and it is where i think you and i totally agree.
i too get frustrated when people talk about this subject in a binary way.
it is NOT just a black/white,good/evil,right/left matter.

and when people engage in this form of perception they also tend to demonize the "other" side.
so if someone posits an opinion that happens to be contrarian to ones views,they are automatically dismissed as "wrong" and anything they have to say is discarded as being stupid,ill-thought or just plain downright wrong.

this is the fundamental flaw in this binary thinking.
and it is not by accident but rather by design.

divide and conquer.

in the developed western world we have 30 choices for toilet paper but when it comes to things that TRULY matter?
we get two.

so the true elite and powerful of this country pick their prized horse and offer up to us,the american public,a choice of TWO rich fuckers.
would you like democrat?
or republican?

doesnt really matter who you choose because either one is going to serve their masters.
who of course are wall street and corporate america.
not you or i.

we are fed a constant stream of populist bullshit that gives the appearance of solidarity and nationalism but in reality serves only the corporate masters in fleecing the american people of more and more of their own hard earned:money,rights,liberties and ultimately our independence.

the problems with un-fettered capitalism are well known and well understood.
just as the problems with socialism are well known.

it is the SYSTEM that needs to be challenged and questioned,examined and ultimately discarded if we find it lacking.

and i find it lacking.
morally,socially and financially.

it is time we kill the beast.
because it is feeding on itself and putting us ALL at risk.

bah..you fucker.got me ranting.

let me conclude with this:
i find all structures of power and authority to be illegitimate until proven otherwise.
i find the system of plutocracy currently in place to be illegitimate.
it serves only the upper eschelon and commodifies the poor.
the poor have become fodder for the military industrial complex as well as the private prison system.
the working poor have become cogs in a machine that is slowly crushing them under the weight of the hubris of those who feel entitled to their fortunes and that somehow they are more deserving then their fellow man.

the beast is sick with its own arrogance and needs to be put down.
the only recourse us normal folk have is to stop feeding the beast.

if only 5% stopped going to work and took to the streets you will see a very frightened beast begging us all to the negotiating table.

thats my 2 cents anyways.

Fuck an official news story and take the bullshit you are watching at face-fucking value maybe??? Try and reason the shit out and you're simply a lackey, a putty-cog in a doomed machine.

Man those edit cuts to make those planks appear on the cog were really well done!

Also very informative and clear Makes a lot of sense.