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Home-Built Turing Machine

Posted by Soulskill on from the i'll-order-a-dozen dept.

stronghawk writes "The creator of the Nickel-O-Matic is back at it and has now built a Turing Machine from a Parallax Propeller chip-based controller, motors, a dry-erase marker and a non-infinite supply of shiny 35mm leader film. From his FAQ: 'While thinking about Turing machines I found that no one had ever actually built one, at least not one that looked like Turing's original concept (if someone does know of one, please let me know). There have been a few other physical Turing machines like the Logo of Doom, but none were immediately recognizable as Turing machines. As I am always looking for a new challenge, I set out to build what you see here.'"

5 of 123 comments (clear)

  1. Know what I'm thinking? by snarfies · · Score: 4, Funny

    Hot Tub Turing Machine!

  2. This made me have a major geek moment. by BlueKitties · · Score: 4, Funny

    For social reasons I will refrain from mentioning this to my friends (which I have) later tonight. Baaaah, I want one! This is so pointless but nifty, my inner collector is crying out. Damn fiscal responsibilities in life tell me it's a waste of money, but oh, the geeky child inside cries out!

    --
    "Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad." [Ecclesiastes 7:3]
  3. Re:hmmm by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Funny

    For the ultimate in coffee table extravagance, you need this turing machine running an implementation of Conway's game of life, ideally using a chessboard as the display device for that: full cells would rise slightly above the board, moving back down when declared empty.

    To provide randomized starting positions for your game of life simulations, without sinning against Von Neumann, a vintage mahogany-clad Geiger-Müller counter would of course be included...

  4. Turing Machine=Mathematician Without Insight by aaaaaaargh! · · Score: 4, Funny

    A Turing machine is supposed to represent what an infinitely patient mathematician with no insight can achieve when he has an infinite amount of paper and pencils. Obviously, the infinity here poses some problems, but you can build a finite Turing machine by finding a mathematician that has no insights,giving him tranquilizers to make him more patient, and locking him into your basement with some food and papers and pencils.

  5. I'm impressed by the_other_chewey · · Score: 5, Funny

    Im impressed: For an infinite tape, the reels look very compact.