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Fun. This looks like a systems dynamics model. Many useful models use differential equations, and there are many substrates to provide that kind of computation
by dj-wonk 11y ago
Fun. This looks like a systems dynamics model. Many useful models use differential equations, and there are many substrates to provide that kind of computation (springs, hydraulics, analog electronics, digital electronics).
And now a slight tangent about "computational substrates". The same applies to quantum computing -- there are many ways to make a qubit.
- elteto 11y agoWhat I like about mechanical computers is that since our universe can be described mathematically you are then harnessing the "computational power" of reality to model some dynamical system. In absence of digital computers I find that to be a very clever alternative.
- haddr 11y agoThis always reminds me of the shortest path problem. For solving it with computers we need some special algorithms and data representations, while alternatively, we could create some sort of rope net, and just pull two interesting nodes to stretch the net and to see which path is the shortest... with "O(1)" computational complexity :)
- elteto 11y agoHaha never thought about it this way, but definitely very interesting :)