[HN Gopher] Computer built using swarms of soldier crabs (2012)
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Computer built using swarms of soldier crabs (2012)
Author : ofou
Score : 48 points
Date : 2023-07-02 05:59 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.wired.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.wired.com)
| 7373737373 wrote:
| For a computer out of springs:
| https://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/mechano.html
| rkagerer wrote:
| Awe, I thought they really did it, like the fictional Pratchett
| Discworld computer named Hex comprised in part of ants.
| jayGlow wrote:
| there was a short story about a computer being made out of a
| swarm of birds.
|
| http://www.rocketstackrank.com/2015/12/a-murmuration-by-alas...
| rkagerer wrote:
| The review is upside down!
| kochikame wrote:
| Or the computer inside the game in the Three Body Problem novel
| which is composed of people waving flags
| izzydata wrote:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0GvSM_HevY
|
| This needs to be translated. This is the depiction of the
| "human" flag computer in the recent Tencent adaptation plus
| some kind of explanation of how it relates to modern computer
| hardware.
| WaitWaitWha wrote:
| Very neat link, thank you. It is an educational video to
| explain how CPUs work using 30 million Qin soldiers.
| bigger_inside wrote:
| Or the computer in Children of Time, also comprised of ants.
| (Though I also came here to say: Three Body Problem. Pretty
| well done in the Chinese TV show.)
| DonHopkins wrote:
| I posted this a few days ago:
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36429420
|
| DonHopkins 11 days ago | parent | context | favorite | on: The
| Neural Net Tank Urban Legend
|
| >[...] with a probable origin in a speculative question in the
| 1960s by Edward Fredkin at an AI conference about some early NN
| research [...]
|
| RIP Edward Fredkin, who recently passed away on June 13, 9 days
| ago.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Fredkin
|
| >Edward Fredkin (born October 2, 1934, died June 13, 2023) was a
| distinguished career professor at Carnegie Mellon University
| (CMU), and an early pioneer of digital physics.
|
| >Fredkin's primary contributions include work on reversible
| computing and cellular automata. While Konrad Zuse's book,
| Calculating Space (1969), mentioned the importance of reversible
| computation, the Fredkin gate represented the essential
| breakthrough. In recent work, he uses the term digital philosophy
| (DP).
|
| >During his career, Fredkin has been a professor of computer
| science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Fairchild
| Distinguished Scholar at Caltech, and Research Professor of
| Physics at Boston University.
|
| Ed Fredkin - Reversible Computing (Keynote from the CCC's
| Workshop on Reversible Computing)
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROv1HX-gdas
|
| Fredkin tells a great story about making Stephen Wolfram's eyes
| pop out of his head by showing him how to transform his own rule
| into a reversible rule.
|
| Reversible Computing
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reversible_computing
|
| Fredkin Gate
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fredkin_gate
|
| Digital Physics
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_physics
|
| Conservative Logic, by Edward Fredkin and Tommaso Toffoli
|
| https://web.archive.org/web/20061017232512/http://www.digita...
|
| Digital Philosophy
|
| https://web.archive.org/web/20170729191558/http://www.digita...
|
| Google Scholar: Edward Fredkin
|
| https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=5QMmygwAAAAJ&hl=en
|
| Rudy Rucker writes about his CAM-6 in the CelLab manual:
|
| Cellular Automata Laboratory: Fourmilab home: Origins of CelLab:
| Classical Era: Von Neumann to Gosper
|
| http://www.fourmilab.ch/cellab/manual/chap5.html
|
| >Computer science is still so new that many of the people at the
| cutting edge have come from other fields. Though Toffoli holds
| degrees in physics and computer science, Bennett's Ph.D. is in
| physical chemistry. And twenty-nine year old Margolus is still a
| graduate student in physics, his dissertation delayed by the work
| of inventing, with Toffoli, the CAM-6 Cellular Automaton Machine.
|
| >After watching the CAM in operation at Margolus's office, I am
| sure the thing will be a hit. Just as the Moog synthesizer
| changed the sound of music, cellular automata will change the
| look of video.
|
| >I tell this to Toffoli and Margolus, and they look unconcerned.
| What they care most deeply about is science, about Edward
| Fredkin's vision of explaining the world in terms of cellular
| automata and information mechanics. Margolus talks about computer
| hackers, and how a successful program is called "a good hack." As
| the unbelievably bizarre cellular automata images flash by on his
| screen, Margolus leans back in his chair and smiles slyly. And
| then he tells me his conception of the world we live in.
|
| >"The universe is a good hack."
|
| [...]
|
| ON THE SOUL: Ed Fredkin, Unpublished Manuscript
|
| http://www.digitalphilosophy.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/...
|
| >The John Cocke Theory of Dreams was told to me, on the phone,
| late one night back in the early 1960's. John's complete
| description was contained in a very short conversation
| approximately as follows:
|
| >"Hey Ed. You know about optimal encoding, right?"
|
| >"Yup."
|
| >"Say the way we remember things is using a lossy optimal
| encoding scheme; you'd get efficient use of memory, huh?"
|
| >"Uh huh." "Well the decoding could take into account recent
| memories and sensory inputs, like sounds being heard, right?"
|
| >"Sure!"
|
| >"Well, if when you're asleep, the decoder is decoding random
| bits (digital noise) mixed in with a few sensory inputs and
| taking into account recent memories and stuff like that, the
| output of the decoder would be a dream; huh?"
|
| >I was stunned.
| a_t48 wrote:
| The caption "Some of Brutal Legend's missions have you drive
| alongside your band's tour van, protecting it from marauding
| motorcycle demons. Image courtesy Electronic Arts." seems a
| little misplaced. :)
| mwcremer wrote:
| Obligatory https://xkcd.com/505/
| DeathArrow wrote:
| https://archive.fo/sjmvF
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(page generated 2023-07-03 23:02 UTC)