Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!zephyr.ens.tek.com!orca!radio_flyer!paulsc
From: paulsc@radio_flyer.WV.TEK.COM (Paul Scherf;685-2734;61-028;692-4142;orca)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: LEGOs -- computationally complete?
Keywords: physical Turing machines
Message-ID: <4792@orca.WV.TEK.COM>
Date: 2 Oct 89 18:51:41 GMT
References: <3300071@m.cs.uiuc.edu>
Sender: nobody@orca.WV.TEK.COM
Reply-To: paulsc@radio_flyer.WV.TEK.COM (Paul Scherf)
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Wilsonville, OR
Lines: 27

In article <3300071@m.cs.uiuc.edu> nelson@m.cs.uiuc.edu writes:
>We are interested in building something (possibly a Turing Machine) out of
>  LEGO blocks.  Various ideas have been popped around, but there seem to be
>  limitations on putting it all together (mechanical mainly).  The most
>  pleasing idea thus far is using counter-/clockwise movement to indicate
>  the state of a bit.

>My question:  Are there any articles floating around discussing this as-yet-
>  untapped field?  (Yes, I know about the one in the new Scientific American.)

While I was in college (a few years ago), a friend of mine and I were
going to build a Turing machine.  We also tried to find articles on
such things.  The professors we happened to ask, were all very nice
about it, but most of them didn't understand at first.  They would
either draw a Turing machine "tape" with the little squares on the
chalkboard, or explain that we only needed a short Pascal program.
Then we got a chance to explain that we wanted to build a PHYSICAL
Turing machine.  No one knew of any articles, but if we succeeded in
our quest, we were invited to give a colloquium for the department.

We got quite far into the mechanical design.  When we got far enough to
start collecting parts and begin construction, we had to "take time
out" to study for semester final exams and never got back to working on
our Turing machine.  (-:

Paul Scherf, Tektronix, Box 1000, MS 61-028, Wilsonville, OR, USA 97070
paulsc@orca.WV.Tek.com        503-685-2734        tektronix!orca!paulsc