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I've been contemplating lately what types of everyday items could be used to create a simple calculator / full adder, outside of the digital realm. Something li

I've been contemplating lately what types of everyday items could be used to create a simple calculator / full adder, outside of the digital realm. Something like candles would be interesting to experiment with. I haven't thought of how it would technically work yet, but if anyone has ideas please share.

anyfoo 4y ago
Relevant xkcd: https://xkcd.com/505/ https://xkcd.com/505/
- GaryPalmer 4y ago
  How do rocks give rise to qualia ?
  - neontomo 4y ago
    In the comic, I believe the idea is that this entity is moving the rocks by hand, but following the rules of computing which slowly, but steadily, creates the world as a computer simulation. And in this case, the qualia would be an emergent property of that simulation, but how that happens or whether it happens at all is a much bigger debate...
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
  - taneq 4y ago
    How do atoms?
thrashh 4y ago
Well if you connect two candles together (“A” and “B”), that would make a NAND gate already, with lit being 0. To connect two of these candle NAND gates together, you’d have to make sure it wouldn’t burn in reverse though. I’ll leave that exercise to the reader…
- neontomo 4y ago
  How do you imagine them being connected?
- FartyMcFarter 4y ago
  It's not clear how two lit inputs results in an unlit output or vice versa with that setup. How do you make that work?
edgyquant 4y ago
This is an interesting but niche topic. It’s called conservative logic[1] and is typically described via a pool/billiard “circuit.” The idea is that it’s more expensive but entirely reversible. I find myself wondering what simple bit possible computers primitive man could have come up with (had they dedicated themselves as much as e.g. the pyramid builders) 1. https://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~mperkows/temp/June16/ConservativeLogic.pdf https://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~mperkows/temp/June16/ConservativeL...
- neontomo 4y ago
  Do you know of any specific examples I can look into where someone built a computer circuit out of normal objects?
  - bombcar 4y ago
    Searching on “mechanical computers” may provide some things. Stuff could also have been done with water.
  - edgyquant 4y ago
    The main example is using billiard balls to act as a circuit (the benefit here is it’s entirely reversible.). It has not been done at scale https://handwiki.org/wiki/Billiard-ball_computer https://handwiki.org/wiki/Billiard-ball_computer
blippage 4y ago
Not exactly "everyday", but you can solve differential equations using pulleys and gears.
- bombcar 4y ago
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_I_Fire_Control_Computer https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_I_Fire_Control_Computer Is pretty cool analog computer
rkagerer 4y ago
I wonder if one could turn crowds of humans into one, eg. engineering flash sales and other social cues they nudge them through gates.
- _yb2s 4y ago
  as I mentioned in another reply to this, there is a popular sci-fi book that includes computation with crowds… surely someone on here will mention the title
_yb2s 4y ago
Toy model train sets can be Turing complete: http://www.cr31.co.uk/stagecast/trains/tt8_mech_logic.html http://www.cr31.co.uk/stagecast/trains/tt8_mech_logic.html I also read a sci-fi book (forgot the title) that involved a pre -tech civilization that had invented computation, and executed code with large crowds of people standing in a grid following set rules to act as logic gates.
- Xophmeister 4y ago
  This is described, IIRC, in The Three-Body Problem[1] [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three-Body_Problem_(novel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three-Body_Problem_(novel)
  - mgdlbp 4y ago
    And more generally the concept is known as a China brain
  - _yb2s 4y ago
    Thank you, I suspected this is where I remembered it from, I had narrowed it down in my memory to either this book, or something from Vernor Vinge.
justsomehnguy 4y ago
To give use some ideas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxXaizglscw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxXaizglscw https://patents.google.com/patent/US3314439A/en https://patents.google.com/patent/US3314439A/en And maybe some inspiration: https://archive.org/details/ExhalationByTedChiang https://archive.org/details/ExhalationByTedChiang
usrusr 4y ago
Overflowing water pools with barriers operated by level or flow in some other pool would be the intuitive candidate. Very close to popular mental models of electricity and people do like to have fountains around. Fountain/playground intermediates seem to be particularly popular. It's been baffling me since late childhood that this isn't a thing everybody loved until they became "oh no, not another one of those!" frequent. Remember when fountains of that giant stone sphere slightly elevated by water pressure type weren't definitely not cool anymore yet?

anyfoo 4y ago

Relevant xkcd: https://xkcd.com/505/ https://xkcd.com/505/

GaryPalmer 4y ago
How do rocks give rise to qualia ?
- neontomo 4y ago
  In the comic, I believe the idea is that this entity is moving the rocks by hand, but following the rules of computing which slowly, but steadily, creates the world as a computer simulation. And in this case, the qualia would be an emergent property of that simulation, but how that happens or whether it happens at all is a much bigger debate...
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- taneq 4y ago
  How do atoms?

thrashh 4y ago

Well if you connect two candles together (“A” and “B”), that would make a NAND gate already, with lit being 0. To connect two of these candle NAND gates together, you’d have to make sure it wouldn’t burn in reverse though. I’ll leave that exercise to the reader…

neontomo 4y ago
How do you imagine them being connected?
FartyMcFarter 4y ago
It's not clear how two lit inputs results in an unlit output or vice versa with that setup. How do you make that work?

edgyquant 4y ago

This is an interesting but niche topic. It’s called conservative logic[1] and is typically described via a pool/billiard “circuit.” The idea is that it’s more expensive but entirely reversible. I find myself wondering what simple bit possible computers primitive man could have come up with (had they dedicated themselves as much as e.g. the pyramid builders) 1. https://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~mperkows/temp/June16/ConservativeLogic.pdf https://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~mperkows/temp/June16/ConservativeL...

neontomo 4y ago
Do you know of any specific examples I can look into where someone built a computer circuit out of normal objects?
- bombcar 4y ago
  Searching on “mechanical computers” may provide some things. Stuff could also have been done with water.
- edgyquant 4y ago
  The main example is using billiard balls to act as a circuit (the benefit here is it’s entirely reversible.). It has not been done at scale https://handwiki.org/wiki/Billiard-ball_computer https://handwiki.org/wiki/Billiard-ball_computer

blippage 4y ago

Not exactly "everyday", but you can solve differential equations using pulleys and gears.

bombcar 4y ago
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_I_Fire_Control_Computer https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_I_Fire_Control_Computer Is pretty cool analog computer

rkagerer 4y ago

I wonder if one could turn crowds of humans into one, eg. engineering flash sales and other social cues they nudge them through gates.

_yb2s 4y ago
as I mentioned in another reply to this, there is a popular sci-fi book that includes computation with crowds… surely someone on here will mention the title

_yb2s 4y ago

Toy model train sets can be Turing complete: http://www.cr31.co.uk/stagecast/trains/tt8_mech_logic.html http://www.cr31.co.uk/stagecast/trains/tt8_mech_logic.html I also read a sci-fi book (forgot the title) that involved a pre -tech civilization that had invented computation, and executed code with large crowds of people standing in a grid following set rules to act as logic gates.

Xophmeister 4y ago
This is described, IIRC, in The Three-Body Problem[1] [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three-Body_Problem_(novel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three-Body_Problem_(novel)
- mgdlbp 4y ago
  And more generally the concept is known as a China brain
- _yb2s 4y ago
  Thank you, I suspected this is where I remembered it from, I had narrowed it down in my memory to either this book, or something from Vernor Vinge.

justsomehnguy 4y ago

To give use some ideas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxXaizglscw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxXaizglscw https://patents.google.com/patent/US3314439A/en https://patents.google.com/patent/US3314439A/en And maybe some inspiration: https://archive.org/details/ExhalationByTedChiang https://archive.org/details/ExhalationByTedChiang

usrusr 4y ago

Overflowing water pools with barriers operated by level or flow in some other pool would be the intuitive candidate. Very close to popular mental models of electricity and people do like to have fountains around. Fountain/playground intermediates seem to be particularly popular. It's been baffling me since late childhood that this isn't a thing everybody loved until they became "oh no, not another one of those!" frequent. Remember when fountains of that giant stone sphere slightly elevated by water pressure type weren't definitely not cool anymore yet?