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A Model Railroad That Computes
tri44id writes "Several blogs have noted an Austrian team that has built a model train set that is a primitive computer. I have to point out, though, that it's actually only a Finite State Machine, like a pocket calculator, not a general-purpose device. Their plan for a general purpose layout is for an infinite-state machine, not a FSM+tape that Turing envisioned in his original paper. Turing took the concept a further step, by presenting a Universal Turing Machine that embodies a special set of states and transitions that allows its tape to be programmable to emulate any other TM. Do Slashdot readers know of any mechanical implementations of a truly Universal Turing Machine? (Danny Hillis' famous tinkertoy tic-tac-toe machine has neither infinite tape nor programmability, and is thus yet another FSM. It shouldn't be hard to elaborate the Austrian model train FSM to use a series of cars carrying movable magnets to represent Turing's tape cells writable with different symbols, and thus become a true TM or even UTM."
I just wasted about half a day compiling and recompiling my linux kernel to get it "just right".
But still, I feel even I have the authority to say that some people just have too much time.
Microsoft patented a process for a 'limited resource computing device'. Presumably because they are aware of an unlimited resource computing device somewhere. Why don't you contact them?
Did he inhale?
Would a UTM Railroad be a train of thought?
Given the requirement for an infinitely long tape, I suspect the answer to this question might be no.
If I seem short sighted, it is because I stand on the shoulders of midgets
I bet they still don't run on time.
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If they didn't have the model train, they wouldn't have gotten the idea for the big trains
This layout is horrible! Get some trees in there! Some buildings? This guy made up the computer idea to hide the fact that he couldn't use plaster-of-Paris.
One man's Funny is another man's Offtopic.