3 ms·

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.ht

by _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.