resisting gravity

You must be kidding...surely. How's about this... apply your logic to the examples you have provided above. Let's take your "weight on a long cable that turns gears" for example, do you think it would work without gravity?

Do you think it would take energy to put it back up to the top again so that you could get 'more' power from it as it fell?

What if your weight was always falling/eternally replenished, like a river!.. that flows down a mountain... and turns turbines...

Enough. I hope you learned two things and one of them has nothing to do with gravity.

'sorta like the clocks with weights on chains use'

You still have to wind the clock!

Seriously, the world is crying out for anti-gravity.

The definition of Potential Energy is:

Potential Energy = mass x acceleration due to gravity x height

A device that uses gravity to extract energy is the water-wheel, used for many years to drive mills that grind seeds to make flour, to provide rotational energy that drives weaving machines, etc., etc.

Don't forget the Hydro-electric plants located around the world that use gravity and water combinded for power generation. If I remember correctly it is the sun that provides the energy to lift the water up. Kind of a nice renewable resource.

I did not mean perpetual or self renewing, of course water flows because of gravity . lets say that I have a way to return the weight to the top of the cable . there is a hole in the weight that the cable passes through as the weight falls towards the floor .if the weights pressure to fall were to cause gears to engage other gears .how long could you keep the weight in a falling state, maximizing the turning motion of the gears