Rube Goldberg Brake? LOL. I can only imagine. Squeeze the brake, a marble drops which presses a button which activates a motor which spins a pulley that pulls on the brake cable. At the stop sign, you reset the machine for the next stop.
I've built questionable braking systems before. When my coaster brake went out on my FD, all I had to replace it with was a front caliper brake assembly. Unfortunately, it would only line up right on the rear wheel. I didn't have a longer cable, so I mounted the lever to the top bar. It worked good enough until the freakin' bolt snapped as I was braking for a turn. Had to take the turn way too fast because the only alternative was going straight into traffic. Went off the road, into the grass, ramped over a pretty deep storm drain ditch, and luckily landed alright, barely made it between a telephone pole and the ground wire thing (you know, the ground cable with the yellow plastic on it?). The whole brake assembly was just dragging on the ground. I Coasted too a stop and about fell over laughing because of the massive adrenaline rush all that caused. Now I anticipate every turn as if the brakes may go out at any second.