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Bob Sardelli wrote:
>
> Well I guess we are using the term "computer" a little loosely. But if it
> could play tic-tac-toe then it made decisions based variable input, thats
> kind of like a computer. And using an RCX would definitely NOT count.
>
> Bob
>
> In lugnet.robotics, Eric Joslin writes:
> > In lugnet.robotics, David Eaton writes:
> >
> > > Of
> > > course, I seem to remember that Mario Ferrari (I think it was him?) built
> > > one using an RCX-- does that count? ;)
> >
> > It was Mario and Marco Beri, they had it with them at Mindfest. I don't know
> > if Mario's brother Gulio had any input into it, so if I'm leaving him out
> > accidentally don't hit me.
> >
> > eric
I'm pretty sure the Tinkertoy 'computer' was basically a look-up table
that
had all positions coded into it with the correct responses, making use
of symmetries to cut down the size of lookup needed. I don't really
consider
that to be a computing device. As I recall, Dewdney wrote a column about
it
for Scientific American a few years ago.
I've thought quite hard about building a general-purpose computing
mechanism
out of lego, and I have at least 2 1/2 quite different potential schemes
in mind,
but I'm not sure any of them are quite ready for the light of day yet.
I've
certainly built individual logic gates in a variety of ways.
Personally, I consider using an RCX to be cheating, even if it's only
used to
drive a fixed Turing-machine-like device. I also don't like the idea of
using
pneumatics in any significant way, since I think that makes the problem
too easy.
Not to mention expensive :-(
A borderline case would be something like using lots of Lego train set
and operating
switches based on the positions and loads of individual trains. In
principle
one could certainly build a general-purpose computing device this way,
but it's
not really quite in the spirit of the sort of thing I'd like to
construct. Of
course, I'd probably feel differently if I actually already _owned_ lots
of lego
trains and track.
Andrew Lipson
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Building a computer from Lego's
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| (...) Good enough for me-- after all, any combinational logic construct (gates, but no registers/flip flops) can be represented as a ROM, and this is often done in practice. I can't imagine saying that just because one didn't represent it the other (...) (24 years ago, 31-Jan-01, to lugnet.robotics, lugnet.general)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Building a computer from Lego's
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| Well I guess we are using the term "computer" a little loosely. But if it could play tic-tac-toe then it made decisions based variable input, thats kind of like a computer. And using an RCX would definitely NOT count. Bob (...) (24 years ago, 30-Jan-01, to lugnet.robotics, lugnet.general)
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