Escapement

My girlfriend gave me a box of old watch parts as a gift, a few years back.  I enjoy going through and identifying them, from time to time... especially the smaller ones:

Watchmakers were the programmers of their day. Ratios and exact tolerances were their code. With only their eyes and math, they were able to increase efficiency to achieve near perpetual motion.

The automatic watch was invented in 1777, but not perfected until the 20th century. The same is true with programming, today.  How efficient and how long it will take to get there is only determined by the amount of imagination.