WEBVTT - Creature of the Gear 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:05.400 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind production of My 0:00:05.480 --> 0:00:14.880 Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. 0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:19.160 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. Today 0:00:19.280 --> 0:00:21.760 we're gonna be in a way we're continuing on past 0:00:21.800 --> 0:00:27.520 discussions concerning the Wheel. Um, also past discussions concerning uh 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:32.000 like rolling creatures. But we're gonna be getting more specifically 0:00:32.080 --> 0:00:37.120 into the realm of the gear in this episode. Now, 0:00:37.400 --> 0:00:39.400 I have to say I'm anytime we get into one 0:00:39.440 --> 0:00:43.960 of these discussions, I'm always reminded of a few lines 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:49.920 from The Omega Man. Uh. In part because it's in 0:00:50.200 --> 0:00:53.840 its own way, it's a weirdly interesting film. Also, I 0:00:53.880 --> 0:00:56.800 probably listened to a bit too much Wide Zombie back 0:00:56.800 --> 0:01:00.880 in high school, uh because there's some or maybe it's 0:01:00.880 --> 0:01:04.319 a Rob Zombie song that that samples this movie. But 0:01:04.360 --> 0:01:08.800 there's this one wonderful line from Anthony zerve Is character says, 0:01:08.800 --> 0:01:12.920 the creature of the Wheel, the lord of the infernal engines. Um. 0:01:13.120 --> 0:01:15.039 What is he talking about the vampires or is he 0:01:15.080 --> 0:01:18.880 talking about about Charlton Heston. He's talking about old Chuck Heston. There, 0:01:18.920 --> 0:01:23.640 he's the This man represents the Wheel and the technology 0:01:23.680 --> 0:01:25.759 of the wheel and all the terrible things that we're 0:01:25.800 --> 0:01:30.600 done with it. Um but wait, I recall the vampires 0:01:30.720 --> 0:01:33.120 using wheeled vehicles. Do they not? Don't they have like 0:01:33.360 --> 0:01:35.959 a sort of zombie mobile. Yeah. I'm not saying it 0:01:36.000 --> 0:01:38.360 makes sense. I'm not saying it's a fair criticism. I'm 0:01:38.400 --> 0:01:42.640 just saying that Anthony Zerva had a really cool voice. 0:01:42.160 --> 0:01:45.319 And uh and when he said these lines, it was like, yeah, 0:01:45.319 --> 0:01:47.039 that sounds cool. I don't know what it means exactly, 0:01:47.040 --> 0:01:49.000 but it sounds pretty cool. You know, it would be 0:01:49.000 --> 0:01:51.800 a really good movie Monster Bug Fight and and both 0:01:51.840 --> 0:01:55.560 are Charlton Heston movies. If you pick the vampires from 0:01:55.600 --> 0:01:59.320 the Omega Man versus the Adam Bomb Cult from the 0:01:59.360 --> 0:02:02.040 Second Plan into the Apes movie, you know, they're they're 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:06.720 pretty similar. I think, pretty similar morbid humanoids. But I 0:02:06.720 --> 0:02:09.120 would like to see them duke it out, and Charlton 0:02:09.120 --> 0:02:11.600 has to I guess can just watch this time? Yeah? 0:02:11.639 --> 0:02:13.480 What was that beneath the Planet of the Apes? I 0:02:13.480 --> 0:02:17.080 always like that one. As far as any eight movies 0:02:17.120 --> 0:02:20.920 that came after Planet of the Apes, that one, that 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:23.680 one always appealed to me. I'm not sure why. Uh. 0:02:23.800 --> 0:02:26.919 I remember there's a part where they sing a hymn 0:02:26.960 --> 0:02:30.280 to the atom bomb. Remember yep, they have just a 0:02:30.280 --> 0:02:32.959 big old atom bomb in there that they worship. I 0:02:33.040 --> 0:02:35.519 think it's like a minor key version of all things 0:02:35.600 --> 0:02:39.520 bright and beautiful. But it's interesting all these things are 0:02:39.560 --> 0:02:42.920 connected because we're dealing with with a human technology and 0:02:43.240 --> 0:02:47.079 the idea of worshiping the technology being bound to the technology, 0:02:47.440 --> 0:02:51.400 and and the wheel, and by virtue of the wheel, 0:02:51.520 --> 0:02:54.880 gears and machines being this thing that is particular to 0:02:55.040 --> 0:02:58.440 human beings, something that that that we have created. It's 0:02:58.440 --> 0:03:01.359 a part of our various civilizations. And I think it's 0:03:01.400 --> 0:03:04.720 interesting to think about humans as creatures of the Wheel Empire, 0:03:04.800 --> 0:03:06.440 because of course there have been plenty of cultures and 0:03:06.480 --> 0:03:11.880 civilizations where the wheel, at least in terms of of vehicles, 0:03:11.880 --> 0:03:14.560 has played no practical role. Perhaps that you know that 0:03:14.639 --> 0:03:16.400 you had the wheel as a toy, Perhaps it was 0:03:16.480 --> 0:03:18.720 used as a spiritual aid or device that could serve 0:03:18.760 --> 0:03:21.359 as a metaphor. But then certainly, by the time we 0:03:21.400 --> 0:03:23.480 get to the you know, the age of roads and engines, 0:03:23.880 --> 0:03:28.639 humanity very visibly becomes a people of the wheel. But then, 0:03:28.840 --> 0:03:31.280 as we'll discussed in this episode a little bit, you 0:03:31.320 --> 0:03:34.760 also get into this domain of wheels and gears of 0:03:34.760 --> 0:03:37.600 of wheels doing things that they don't have have anything 0:03:37.600 --> 0:03:41.560 directly to do with vehicles, but it's all about using 0:03:41.600 --> 0:03:44.240 the energy of the wheel to do other things. And 0:03:44.320 --> 0:03:46.440 yet at the same time, and this also makes me 0:03:46.440 --> 0:03:49.480 think of the field of bio memetics bioble metics, of course, 0:03:49.520 --> 0:03:52.680 as when we we say, okay, I have an engineering problem. 0:03:52.720 --> 0:03:55.560 I need to turn to the realm of nature for 0:03:55.600 --> 0:03:57.960 a possible solution, because I've only been working on this 0:03:58.040 --> 0:04:01.240 engineering problem for you know, X amount of time. But 0:04:01.400 --> 0:04:06.800 evolution has been working around similar engineering problems just for 0:04:06.800 --> 0:04:10.360 for millions of years. So perhaps we can we can 0:04:10.440 --> 0:04:13.680 cheat off of nature in that regard. But of course, 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:16.920 one of the problems is that the wheel almost never 0:04:17.040 --> 0:04:21.600 comes up in nature itself. Gears almost never come up 0:04:21.600 --> 0:04:25.479 in nature. So biomometically, you're not going to turn to 0:04:25.640 --> 0:04:28.359 nature and say, oh, well, well there's a there's a 0:04:28.360 --> 0:04:31.040 solution involving the wheel that I might use. Oh, let's 0:04:31.040 --> 0:04:35.359 look and see how this particular creature uses rotary blades 0:04:35.440 --> 0:04:39.080 to fly that sort of thing. Yeah, you know, I 0:04:39.240 --> 0:04:43.400 actually really enjoy thinking about this in terms of comparing 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:49.120 animal bodies to different types of machines, machine components, simple machines. 0:04:49.320 --> 0:04:51.520 You know the stuff you learn about in those first 0:04:51.520 --> 0:04:54.200 physics lessons when you're a kid. So you know, you 0:04:54.200 --> 0:04:56.680 know the lever and the inclined plane, and the and 0:04:57.000 --> 0:04:59.200 the pulley and the screw and all that. And I 0:04:59.240 --> 0:05:01.560 feel like when you do this exercise, there is one 0:05:01.720 --> 0:05:07.000 type of simple machine that absolutely dominates the landscape of biology, 0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:10.400 and that is the lever. Biology is full of levers. 0:05:10.480 --> 0:05:14.120 I think you could make an argument that almost all 0:05:14.160 --> 0:05:17.200 of the skeletal muscle in our bodies is designed by 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:20.520 evolution for the operation of levers. Maybe there are some 0:05:20.600 --> 0:05:23.360 exceptions that aren't occurring to me, but I would say, 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:25.840 if not all of them, almost all of them. So, 0:05:25.880 --> 0:05:28.800 for example, when you use your bicep to do an 0:05:28.920 --> 0:05:32.040 arm curl, you're curling a dumbbell. You know, the muscle 0:05:32.200 --> 0:05:34.600 primarily the bicep. I think also somewhat the muscle in 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:37.719 your forearm is exerting the effort. The load is what's 0:05:37.720 --> 0:05:40.159 in your hand, it's your your fist, and the full 0:05:40.240 --> 0:05:42.960 crum is the elbow joint, and of course the bone 0:05:43.320 --> 0:05:45.840 is the lever. So I think most of the body's 0:05:45.920 --> 0:05:49.000 gross motor activity is based on the action of levers 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:52.480 with joints as the fulcrum uh. And then, but then 0:05:52.480 --> 0:05:55.840 when you start looking for other simple machines and animal bodies, 0:05:55.839 --> 0:05:58.240 you can turn up some examples, but it suddenly gets 0:05:58.240 --> 0:06:02.120 a lot more difficult to scope things out. Like you 0:06:02.120 --> 0:06:05.080 can maybe make the argument that sharp teeth and fangs 0:06:05.200 --> 0:06:07.640 or a type of wedge which is technically a form 0:06:07.680 --> 0:06:12.560 of the simple machine known as the inclined plane. But 0:06:12.600 --> 0:06:15.720 then there are other types of of machines and machine 0:06:15.760 --> 0:06:19.839 parts that are pretty rare or even nonexistent in nature, 0:06:20.040 --> 0:06:22.000 and the wheel is a good one of these. There 0:06:22.000 --> 0:06:25.000 there are really only a few examples that people can 0:06:25.040 --> 0:06:28.640 point to of things that might be considered freely rotating 0:06:28.680 --> 0:06:33.159 wheels and axles. In biology, sometimes people bring up versions 0:06:33.200 --> 0:06:36.520 of the of bacterial flagella as something that sort of 0:06:36.520 --> 0:06:39.480 operates like a wheel, kind of spinning like a propeller 0:06:39.520 --> 0:06:43.560 to move the bacterium uh through through a liquid medium 0:06:43.720 --> 0:06:45.920 and uh. And then there are also I think some 0:06:46.040 --> 0:06:50.480 possible parts of animal digestive systems that may function kind 0:06:50.480 --> 0:06:54.080 of like a wheel. But animal body plans clearly favored 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:58.400 the versatility of legs based on levers instead of wheels, 0:06:58.480 --> 0:07:01.200 And you can make a few different arguments about like 0:07:01.279 --> 0:07:04.440 why evolution overwhelmingly goes that route. You could you could 0:07:04.440 --> 0:07:08.240 say maybe it has something to do with just morphological precedence, 0:07:08.360 --> 0:07:13.040 like that levers are easier to evolve from the pre 0:07:13.120 --> 0:07:16.600 existing forms that were available for animal bodies to work 0:07:16.680 --> 0:07:19.680 on when in you know, adapting through small mutations. But 0:07:19.800 --> 0:07:23.560 you could also argue that there are natural uh, terrain 0:07:23.680 --> 0:07:26.840 negotiation advantages to levers. You know, if you're not in 0:07:26.880 --> 0:07:31.360 a world of clean paved surfaces, wheels can actually pretty 0:07:31.360 --> 0:07:33.440 easily get hung up on things, and you need the 0:07:33.560 --> 0:07:37.640 articulation of levers and limbs in order to say, uh, 0:07:37.680 --> 0:07:40.520 you know, get over rugged terrain, or to flip yourself 0:07:40.560 --> 0:07:42.880 back over if you fall on your back. I think 0:07:42.880 --> 0:07:45.680 it's also telling that when we look to the world 0:07:45.800 --> 0:07:50.440 of mythological creatures than beings, we don't see a lot 0:07:50.480 --> 0:07:52.240 of wheels, or at least we don't see a lot 0:07:52.280 --> 0:07:56.280 of wheels that are innately organic, and then if we do, 0:07:56.720 --> 0:07:59.640 we tend not to see a creature or a being 0:08:00.240 --> 0:08:04.480 that is supposed to be of this world. Um and uh. 0:08:04.520 --> 0:08:07.760 And perhaps there's some exception to this rule. That I'm overlooking, 0:08:07.840 --> 0:08:11.560 but I thought I might bring up a couple of examples. One, 0:08:11.720 --> 0:08:14.360 and I know I've mentioned this this critter on the 0:08:14.800 --> 0:08:19.640 show before. There is a demon by the name of Bure. 0:08:19.840 --> 0:08:23.160 I believe it is b u e R described in 0:08:23.400 --> 0:08:30.360 Johann of Vierst sixty three Grimore pseudo Monarchia demonium Um. 0:08:30.680 --> 0:08:35.679 This covers a number of different of supposed demons, and 0:08:35.760 --> 0:08:39.000 this demon Buer is the Great President of Hell. Kind 0:08:39.000 --> 0:08:43.319 of a goblin faced lion with kind of a wheel 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:47.000 of five legs going around it, which I find reminiscent 0:08:47.160 --> 0:08:50.640 of the pet rail wheel which I mentioned in a 0:08:50.800 --> 0:08:54.720 previous Artifact episode, an experimental tank wheel that had legs 0:08:54.760 --> 0:08:57.880 on it um. So as the wheel turns, the legs 0:08:58.120 --> 0:09:01.280 are are placed down onto the ount uh. In this 0:09:01.360 --> 0:09:04.599 case they are goat legs, and I've I've read that 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:07.400 they're supposed to symbolize the demon's ability to move in 0:09:07.480 --> 0:09:10.360 any direction. So I'm not entirely sure that we're even 0:09:10.400 --> 0:09:13.400 supposed to imagine this creature turning like a wheel or 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:16.199 like a clock or something. But when I look at him, 0:09:16.280 --> 0:09:19.320 that's all I can see, Like he basically moves on 0:09:19.360 --> 0:09:21.719 the page or on the screen when I stare at him, 0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:23.880 and I can imagine I'm kind of lumping around along. 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:27.600 You know. Well, I tend to think about um. When 0:09:27.600 --> 0:09:31.760 wheels are imagined in the imagery of mythology and religion, 0:09:32.640 --> 0:09:35.160 it's often to say something about the fact that the 0:09:35.280 --> 0:09:38.400 vision is boggling the mind it. You know, that it's 0:09:38.480 --> 0:09:43.280 transcending familiar forms and just completely awing you and humbling 0:09:43.320 --> 0:09:46.920 you with confusion. Uh So I think, for example, about 0:09:47.240 --> 0:09:50.720 Ezekiel's vision of the wheels in in in the Hebrew Bible, 0:09:51.280 --> 0:09:54.440 and and how the wheels there, Uh, it seems to 0:09:54.480 --> 0:09:56.360 me at least, I mean, I'm you know, no professional 0:09:56.440 --> 0:09:58.880 legsagy eat on that, but it seems like that they 0:09:58.880 --> 0:10:02.840 symbolize something about, uh, a concept that sort of like 0:10:02.880 --> 0:10:06.360 surpasses human understanding. You're looking at something that your mind 0:10:06.480 --> 0:10:09.560 can't even fit around. Yeah, I mean, we can easily 0:10:09.800 --> 0:10:12.680 imagine the various connotations that are being drawn in there. 0:10:13.240 --> 0:10:15.240 When you have a wheel like appearing in the sky, 0:10:15.440 --> 0:10:18.880 because you have the idea of technology, something created by 0:10:18.960 --> 0:10:21.560 rational beings, you have the idea of sort of cosmic 0:10:21.600 --> 0:10:25.880 wheels and circular forms related to the movements of the 0:10:25.920 --> 0:10:29.319 stars and the planets and so forth. Uh. And then 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:32.920 the idea too that if if this is mixed with 0:10:33.120 --> 0:10:37.320 some sort of biological or faintly biological or hybrid form, 0:10:37.360 --> 0:10:40.040 that that is again something that is not reflected in nature. 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:44.120 It is something there is something inherently unnatural about this, 0:10:44.120 --> 0:10:46.800 this hybrid being that is not even just part animal 0:10:46.800 --> 0:10:49.160 and part human. Are part of this animal and part 0:10:49.200 --> 0:10:53.800 that animal, but part flesh being and part cosmic or 0:10:53.840 --> 0:10:57.360 technological entity. Now then again, in nature and biology, you 0:10:57.400 --> 0:11:02.440 do find all kinds of round mechanisms and round bodies 0:11:02.480 --> 0:11:05.000 and even rolling forms. You know, lots of animals can 0:11:05.120 --> 0:11:07.680 roll up into a round shape and then roll their 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:11.280 whole body. What you what really seems to be unusual 0:11:11.320 --> 0:11:13.720 in nature, And again maybe you can only find a 0:11:13.840 --> 0:11:16.080 few examples here and there that would seem to fit. 0:11:16.120 --> 0:11:20.480 This is a freely rotating wheel that somehow transfers energy 0:11:20.520 --> 0:11:23.840 within a broader context. So like the wheel and axle 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:26.240 on a car that moves the car body the car, 0:11:26.440 --> 0:11:29.200 you know, the chassis stationary, and then the wheel turns 0:11:29.240 --> 0:11:31.920 to propel it forward. That's what you really don't find 0:11:32.040 --> 0:11:34.640 much of in nature. But if you're content with just 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:37.720 like something round, that rolls. You can have a wheel 0:11:37.720 --> 0:11:40.160 spider rolling down a dune. You can have bugs that 0:11:40.280 --> 0:11:42.760 roll up into round shapes and roll all over the place. 0:11:42.840 --> 0:11:45.840 Even some mammals do that. Yeah, there are some examples 0:11:45.840 --> 0:11:52.280 of creatures that that form rolling shapes, granted, if the 0:11:52.400 --> 0:11:55.600 topography is correct. Uh. There's also, of course that the 0:11:55.679 --> 0:11:59.280 example of goat poop I've seen brought up. Granted, goat 0:11:59.320 --> 0:12:01.600 poop is not a self alive, but it is the 0:12:01.640 --> 0:12:05.480 product of of a biological organism. And the idea here 0:12:05.640 --> 0:12:07.440 is that the goat poop is nice and rounds so 0:12:07.440 --> 0:12:10.160 that it can roll away and hide itself. Uh in 0:12:10.240 --> 0:12:16.559 these kind of environments. But I advocate for goat poop personhood. Okay, Um. 0:12:17.320 --> 0:12:18.920 But but of course, one of the things about any 0:12:18.960 --> 0:12:20.640 of these rolling creatures is, of course, if it's going 0:12:20.679 --> 0:12:23.079 to roll, it's everything's gonna roll. There's not gonna be 0:12:23.120 --> 0:12:26.800 a stationary part all of the rolling creature, as in 0:12:27.080 --> 0:12:29.560 the same way that say, there would be the cart 0:12:29.679 --> 0:12:32.760 portion of an ox cart would remain the same. Uh. 0:12:32.800 --> 0:12:36.320 But when we look to some of our supernatural models, 0:12:36.360 --> 0:12:38.520 we do see things that work like this, of course 0:12:38.559 --> 0:12:42.800 in a very supernatural form. Uh. There's a wonderful wheel 0:12:42.840 --> 0:12:47.120 creature in um In Japanese traditions, there's a yokai known 0:12:47.160 --> 0:12:50.319 as one you know, the fire wheel, and he's a 0:12:50.360 --> 0:12:53.439 he's a pretty famous yokai. You've you've probably seen images 0:12:53.520 --> 0:12:57.280 of him, especially if you partake of various like anime 0:12:57.960 --> 0:13:02.080 um products, because he pops up in a lot of things, 0:13:02.080 --> 0:13:04.120 and think he pops up in some video games as well. 0:13:04.600 --> 0:13:07.880 He looks like a grumpy, giant human head sort of 0:13:07.960 --> 0:13:11.079 haloed by a burning, smoking ghost wheel, and we get 0:13:11.120 --> 0:13:13.600 the impression that the wheel is moving in the head 0:13:13.679 --> 0:13:17.240 is remaining stationary. He said to guard the gates of hell, 0:13:17.920 --> 0:13:20.400 and I've also read that in life he said to 0:13:20.440 --> 0:13:23.080 have been a cruel ruler who burned people on the wheel, 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:25.760 so this is kind of his punishment. He haunts them 0:13:25.800 --> 0:13:29.120 the roads at night he made drag souls back to hell. 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:34.720 And there's also a female variation called Catawaga. Okay, so 0:13:34.760 --> 0:13:37.440 this would seem to be more like that mechanism you 0:13:37.480 --> 0:13:40.640 don't really find in nature, if the head stays stationary 0:13:40.679 --> 0:13:43.560 while the wheel turns around it right, And of course 0:13:43.559 --> 0:13:45.600 in this too, we have just a it's not even 0:13:45.600 --> 0:13:48.079 pretending to be an entirely organic creature. It is this 0:13:48.200 --> 0:13:54.160 supernatural um combination of two or three different things. UM. 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:57.199 But yeah, this is a pretty popular figure. The Power 0:13:57.320 --> 0:14:00.840 Rangers have even fought him on occasion. UM shows up 0:14:00.840 --> 0:14:03.800 in various anime titles, and I have to say, sometimes 0:14:03.840 --> 0:14:06.320 he looks a little bit like Dr robot Nick from 0:14:06.360 --> 0:14:10.040 the Sonic Games. So I wonder if Dr Robotnick was 0:14:10.080 --> 0:14:13.400 at all inspired by this yokai you know, a grumpy 0:14:13.480 --> 0:14:16.880 faced man machine with kind of a spherical design. Because 0:14:17.040 --> 0:14:19.640 Dr Robotnick is he's the Eggman, you know, so he's 0:14:19.680 --> 0:14:22.240 often in some kind of little like little circular pod. 0:14:22.680 --> 0:14:25.600 Why do I want to say that the the Dr 0:14:25.720 --> 0:14:28.200 Robotnick was supposed to be based on the appearance of 0:14:28.280 --> 0:14:30.920 Theodore Roosevelt. Do you know what I'm talking about? He 0:14:30.960 --> 0:14:33.400 does look like Theodore Roosevelt. Yeah, so that might be 0:14:33.440 --> 0:14:36.360 it instead. I don't know. I couldn't. I briefly looked around. 0:14:36.360 --> 0:14:39.440 I couldn't find anything that connected at Dr Robotnick. There's 0:14:39.440 --> 0:14:42.480 not a lot of scholarship on Dr Robotnick, it seems, 0:14:43.040 --> 0:14:44.840 unless I'm missing it. And if I am missing it, 0:14:45.120 --> 0:14:47.800 please send it to me. I want to read your 0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:51.520 your thesis. Okay, our new podcast is an oral history 0:14:51.560 --> 0:14:56.760 of Dr Robotnick. Um. Now there's a there's another throw 0:14:56.840 --> 0:14:59.080 some I am the Walrus, and some Teddy Roosevelt and 0:14:59.120 --> 0:15:01.440 your blender, and then there you go, oh yeah, there's 0:15:01.440 --> 0:15:03.680 definitely a It seems like there's definitely a Beatles connection 0:15:03.720 --> 0:15:07.160 there as well. Now, um, I was I was reading 0:15:07.200 --> 0:15:09.560 about this two particularly Yokai, and there's one more little 0:15:09.560 --> 0:15:11.520 story I ran across it. I have to share this was. 0:15:12.040 --> 0:15:15.480 I found this on Matthew Myers. Yokai dot Com has 0:15:15.520 --> 0:15:18.920 a profile of when Udo and shares a brief story 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:21.040 that I haven't found anywhere else but it's it's too 0:15:21.080 --> 0:15:23.400 good not to share, and I'm probably just missing accounts 0:15:23.400 --> 0:15:27.520 of it elsewhere, but quoting this website, one famous story 0:15:27.560 --> 0:15:30.720 from Kyoto tells a woman who peeked out her window 0:15:31.000 --> 0:15:33.920 at one Udo as he passed through town. The demon 0:15:34.000 --> 0:15:36.760 snarled at her, saying, instead of looking at me, have 0:15:36.800 --> 0:15:39.200 a look at your own child. She looked back at 0:15:39.200 --> 0:15:41.200 her baby, who was screaming on the floor in a 0:15:41.240 --> 0:15:43.720 pool of blood. Both of its legs had been completely 0:15:43.720 --> 0:15:46.400 torn from its body. When she looked back out at 0:15:46.400 --> 0:15:49.200 one Udo, that child's legs were in its mouth being 0:15:49.240 --> 0:15:53.920 eaten by the mad grinning monster. What so it did 0:15:54.040 --> 0:15:59.040 he teleport that I don't Okay, yeah, yeah, I don't know. 0:15:59.120 --> 0:16:02.200 He's eating those babies eggs. He's a bad dude. That 0:16:02.200 --> 0:16:10.640 that's a bad dude. So anyway, I'll stop there with 0:16:10.680 --> 0:16:13.320 my wheel creatures. But this is suffice to say, just 0:16:13.320 --> 0:16:15.760 just bringing these up to drive home the fact that 0:16:15.760 --> 0:16:18.840 that I think we we have long not expected to 0:16:18.880 --> 0:16:22.320 find wheels and gears in the natural world. They are 0:16:22.360 --> 0:16:26.320 things of our creation. We are the people of the wheel, well, 0:16:26.440 --> 0:16:29.280 especially the gear. So that that was my original idea 0:16:29.360 --> 0:16:31.280 for the episode, was to focus on the idea of 0:16:31.960 --> 0:16:36.200 artificial gears versus possible examples of gears in nature. And 0:16:36.240 --> 0:16:38.320 while you can make arguments for a few examples of 0:16:38.320 --> 0:16:41.560 wheels in nature, the gear is really a different kind 0:16:41.560 --> 0:16:44.400 of story, except for this one really cool example that 0:16:44.440 --> 0:16:47.840 we're gonna be looking at today. So what is a gear? Well, 0:16:48.160 --> 0:16:51.240 you've seen gears before, but to actually define the concept 0:16:51.280 --> 0:16:54.080 what counts as a gear? I think I think you 0:16:54.120 --> 0:16:58.000 could say a gear is a set of rotating machine 0:16:58.040 --> 0:17:01.800 parts with interlocking teeth. So these can often take the 0:17:01.840 --> 0:17:05.600 form of a kind of flat circular plate, but they 0:17:05.600 --> 0:17:07.960 can also take the form of say like a long 0:17:08.160 --> 0:17:10.639 shaft that has teeth on the shaft, or they can 0:17:10.680 --> 0:17:13.760 even be non circular. There are more kind of square 0:17:13.800 --> 0:17:16.840 shaped gears and gears of all different kinds of shapes 0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:20.240 and sizes, but what's common to all of them is 0:17:20.359 --> 0:17:23.720 that they have teeth that interlock with each other and 0:17:23.760 --> 0:17:28.760 they use those teeth and rotation to transfer force rotational 0:17:28.880 --> 0:17:32.000 force known as torque. So they can transfer torque from 0:17:32.040 --> 0:17:35.360 one place to another, and they can also sometimes transform 0:17:35.480 --> 0:17:38.639 that force in some way as it is transferred. So 0:17:38.760 --> 0:17:42.320 gears can change the direction of rotational force. Like if 0:17:42.359 --> 0:17:46.800 you picture two interlocking wheel shaped gears, you rotate one 0:17:46.800 --> 0:17:50.520 of them clockwise, it'll actually rotate the other one counterclockwise, 0:17:51.000 --> 0:17:54.199 so that'll that'll perform one kind of change, or you 0:17:54.240 --> 0:17:57.439 can change the orientation of the torque by having the 0:17:57.480 --> 0:18:01.280 gears interlock at an angle. So think of, for example, 0:18:01.320 --> 0:18:04.560 how if you imagine a car that has the engine 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:09.840 sending its rotational force its torque through a drive shaft 0:18:09.920 --> 0:18:12.399 that runs along the length of the car, then that 0:18:12.560 --> 0:18:15.520 energy has to be transferred to the wheels to get 0:18:15.520 --> 0:18:18.560 them rotating. In the direction that's parallel to the car's motion. 0:18:18.720 --> 0:18:22.639 So there are gears that interlock at angles there to 0:18:22.720 --> 0:18:25.919 transfer that force eventually to the wheels. But gears can 0:18:25.960 --> 0:18:29.400 also be used to gain mechanical advantage or change the 0:18:29.560 --> 0:18:34.359 speed of a rotational force in a mathematically predictable way. So, 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:36.880 for example, if you use a bigger gear with more 0:18:36.920 --> 0:18:40.320 teeth to spin a smaller gear with fewer teeth, the 0:18:40.400 --> 0:18:44.000 smaller gear will spin faster than the larger one, and 0:18:44.040 --> 0:18:47.080 the change in speed will be proportional to the ratio 0:18:47.160 --> 0:18:50.320 of the tooth counts between the two differently sized gears. 0:18:50.359 --> 0:18:53.360 In other words, if you use a gear to drive 0:18:53.400 --> 0:18:55.760 a second gear with half as many teeth as the 0:18:55.800 --> 0:18:59.440 first gear, it will spin exactly twice as fast. To 0:18:59.520 --> 0:19:02.800 a certain stand. It almost feels like like wheel wizardry, 0:19:03.800 --> 0:19:06.919 because the wheel is doing its thing and and and 0:19:06.920 --> 0:19:08.760 if you're not going to do anything else, you can Okay, 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:12.119 you can do various tasks and carry out various acts 0:19:12.640 --> 0:19:17.000 by interacting with that wheel on its terms. But by 0:19:17.000 --> 0:19:19.960 the use of gears, you can transform it. You can 0:19:20.160 --> 0:19:24.359 you can make the gear work in other ways. Um, 0:19:24.680 --> 0:19:27.000 And I think that's that's one of the fascinating things. 0:19:27.000 --> 0:19:28.720 So when we're when we're talking about sort of that 0:19:28.800 --> 0:19:31.560 lead from from wheel to gear. And of course, and 0:19:31.640 --> 0:19:33.360 this could be just as simple as why I don't 0:19:33.359 --> 0:19:37.800 want horizontal rotation, I want vertical rotation, that sort of thing, right, 0:19:37.880 --> 0:19:40.760 But it can also this last thing I mentioned about 0:19:40.760 --> 0:19:45.359 the predictable mathematical relationships between the intervals of rotation of 0:19:45.400 --> 0:19:50.200 tooth to gears. The fact that toothed gears are quantized, right, 0:19:50.200 --> 0:19:52.480 that you can like put a number to the number 0:19:52.520 --> 0:19:54.879 of teeth on a rotation that allows you to tightly 0:19:54.920 --> 0:19:58.560 control the ratios you know, how fast one spins in 0:19:58.640 --> 0:20:02.920 relationship to another one. That actually has made gears useful 0:20:03.040 --> 0:20:06.480 not just for say, applying force to things like you know, 0:20:06.560 --> 0:20:11.200 powering a machine or something, but also for tasks related 0:20:11.240 --> 0:20:14.560 to more abstract types of work, like measurements such as 0:20:14.680 --> 0:20:18.879 measuring intervals of time UM and not just in straightforward 0:20:18.920 --> 0:20:22.360 timekeeping devices like clocks. Of course, gears are very important 0:20:22.359 --> 0:20:27.199 in in um analog clocks, but even more complex applications 0:20:27.240 --> 0:20:30.159 like we see in one of the most intriguing artifacts 0:20:30.200 --> 0:20:34.159 from the ancient world, known as the Antiko theorem mechanism, 0:20:34.520 --> 0:20:39.520 which is widely considered the first known computer not a 0:20:39.560 --> 0:20:43.760 digital computer, but an analog computer, a computer that uses 0:20:43.920 --> 0:20:49.640 gears instead of semiconductors for information processing. UH. The antikothera 0:20:49.720 --> 0:20:53.199 mechanism was discovered in a Roman era shipwreck in the 0:20:53.280 --> 0:20:57.360 Mediterranean around the r nineteen hundred UH and this shipwreck 0:20:57.440 --> 0:21:00.320 traced back to a ship that sank probably in the 0:21:00.440 --> 0:21:03.679 first century CE. ROB. I've got an image for you 0:21:03.760 --> 0:21:06.439 to look at here that shows the actual remains of 0:21:06.480 --> 0:21:10.560 the mechanism alongside a modern reconstruction that was sort of 0:21:10.600 --> 0:21:14.160 reverse engineered and built by some experts who had studied 0:21:14.160 --> 0:21:17.560 this machine. The mechanism is now understood to have been 0:21:17.600 --> 0:21:21.919 an ancient mechanical or ory. An oorory is a is 0:21:21.960 --> 0:21:26.520 a working model of the movement of heavenly bodies, and 0:21:26.560 --> 0:21:29.320 this one would have been powered by a hand crank 0:21:29.720 --> 0:21:33.520 that operated gears. And this or ory would allow you 0:21:33.600 --> 0:21:37.679 to calculate the relative positions of heavenly bodies like the 0:21:37.720 --> 0:21:41.160 Moon and the Sun as they traveled through the zodiac 0:21:41.200 --> 0:21:44.480 out to specific future dates. UH. And I think it 0:21:44.640 --> 0:21:47.639 may it may also have tracked planetary motion as well, 0:21:47.680 --> 0:21:50.520 but that's less certain. I think that's a hypothetical mechanism 0:21:50.560 --> 0:21:52.879 that may have been present but may have been lost. 0:21:53.560 --> 0:21:56.359 When I look at it, I'm instantly reminded of those uh, 0:21:56.720 --> 0:22:00.760 those gear devices you find at museums and zoos where 0:22:00.880 --> 0:22:02.639 you can squash a penny and make it into a 0:22:02.640 --> 0:22:06.600 collector's token, which which I have to say, as as 0:22:06.640 --> 0:22:09.720 a parent, I have I have long realized that children 0:22:09.760 --> 0:22:14.520 are drawn to these like like flies to meet they 0:22:14.520 --> 0:22:18.000 they have to turn the crank, they have to watch 0:22:18.040 --> 0:22:22.679 those gears operate. Um and uh and And now that 0:22:22.680 --> 0:22:24.520 we've actually discussed gears a bit on the show, I 0:22:24.600 --> 0:22:26.440 used to be I was. I've long been very annoyed 0:22:26.440 --> 0:22:28.119 by it, like, oh, come on, don't mess with that. 0:22:28.240 --> 0:22:29.879 We're here to look at something else, and you're just 0:22:29.880 --> 0:22:31.840 gonna turn this gear on this machine that I'm not 0:22:31.880 --> 0:22:34.000 going to give you fifty cents and a penny for 0:22:34.240 --> 0:22:37.560 because it's it's a dumb invention. But at the same 0:22:37.560 --> 0:22:39.760