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A Turing Machine Built With Lego, And a Place To Put It
New submitter Otis_INF writes "To honor Alan Turing, two researchers at the CWI built a simple LEGO Turing Machine, to show everyone how simple a computer actually is. Primary goals were to make every operation as visible as possible and to make it using just a single LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT set."
And if a simple Turing machine gets old, Reader miller60 adds a link to this Lego data center "that recreates all the major features of an IT facility, assembled from 5,772 pieces, 28 figures, and 1 meter of fiber optic cable. The builder, Tanaka, has uploaded details to the Lego Digital Designer Gallery so others can build and adapt their own."
Why did I get moderated down?
You were modded down because you are an annoying Aspie. I know that people with an ASD often get confused by social cues, so allow me to explain: this is a cool project and it upsets people if you pedantically suggest it's not what the consensus definition claims.
Essentially, no one cares that a Turing Machine is impossible to realize. At most, this fact was worthy of a side comment at the end of a long post about how cool Lego robots are.
Hope that helps.
The fact that you don't even realise that you dissed this cool Lego project is a symptom of your Aspiness.
Your are factually correct. But noone cares because it isn't about obscure minutae but about a cool project. With Lego's, no less!
Nowhere did I diss the Lego project. I just added a minor informative correction.
You're correct; however, social cues are often implicit. In this case, the negative emotional reaction caused by your post was due to the fact that it was tacitly perceived as detracting from the accomplishment of the project creators.
You see, your correction (and the "tone" of the post) were perceived as implicitly confrontational against the project creators. *They* called it a Turing Machine, and you are claiming they are wrong even though this is a very decent simulacrum.
Basically, had you praised the project first and mentioned the actual Turing Machine definition "in passing", people would have reacted to your post more positively.