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I built a mechanical computer kit: https://whomtech.com/show-hn
tl;dr: it's a cellular automaton on a "loom" of alternating bars, using contoured tiles to guide marbles through logic gates.
It's not just "Turing complete, job done"; I've tried to make it actually practical. Devices are compact, e.g. you can fit a binary adder into a 3cm square. It took me nearly two years and dozens of different approaches.
There's a sequence of interactive tutorials to try out, demo videos, and a janky simulator. I've also sent out a few prototype kits and have some more ready to go.
Please ask me anything, I will talk about this for hours.
-- Jesse
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43859464
Points: 61
# Comments: 18
tl;dr: it's a cellular automaton on a "loom" of alternating bars, using contoured tiles to guide marbles through logic gates.
It's not just "Turing complete, job done"; I've tried to make it actually practical. Devices are compact, e.g. you can fit a binary adder into a 3cm square. It took me nearly two years and dozens of different approaches.
There's a sequence of interactive tutorials to try out, demo videos, and a janky simulator. I've also sent out a few prototype kits and have some more ready to go.
Please ask me anything, I will talk about this for hours.
-- Jesse
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43859464
Points: 61
# Comments: 18