This is an example of a mechanical computer. There are other popular computer implementations in Dwarf Fortress, including fluidic (pumping water around) and biological (enclosing creatures in specially-designed mazes).
Once the basic logic gates are designed, it's easy (though tedious and time-consuming) to build arbitrarily large computing devices. One famous example is a multifunction calculator, documented at < http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/User:BaronW >.
Building amazingly complex (if tedious and time-consuming) objects in Dwarf Fortress is pretty much what the game is about after you manage to get past the early learning stages.
This is the kind of game I would recommend to hackers - it definitely supports the mind set of figuring out the rules in a system, then exploiting them to build something incredible.
For example, I remember discovering that if you build your dwarf fortress in certain freezing climates, it was possible to take water from a flowing source underground, then release it aboveground, whereupon it would flash-freeze into solid walls that dwarves could stand on, tunnel through, or build on top of. That immediately led to Operation: Build An Enormous Ice Palace, a plan to create an aboveground megaplex by making dwarves haul unfrozen water bucket by bucket and pour it, like concrete, into a planned mold. (I was exploiting the loophole that water carried in a bucket does not freeze until dropped from the bucket.)
It was ridiculous, arbitrary, and destructive of my free time - but most games are anyway... so why not take a game that also challenges your hacking mindset?
I think the question we are all wondering is whether or not the computational engine here can be used to aid the dwarf decision making and increase automation and profit margins?
I suppose it would be vaguely on-topic to mention the WireWorld computer, a particularly pretty MOV-machine implemented in the WireWorld cellular automaton:
My first CS course in college was Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs. It was quite a thrill when we finally got our hand-written Scheme interpreter to run itself and give us a REPL prompt. Turtles all the way down.
Some years ago someone figured out how to build logic gates in Quake 3 maps out of doors and shooters (entities that shoot a projectile when triggered). This was actually used in some single player maps and to create special game modes that aren't present in vanilla Q3.
I guess this could, in theory, be used to create a Turing Complete computer. It might hit the entity limit of Quake 3 though.
I think the question will be whether it's ethical to start a game that commonly ends in mass starvation, riots inspired by the rotting corpses of one's closest friends, and sometimes even running out of booze.
Now he should port his DF-based computer to run on the iPhone, that way he could use it as a sort of "intermediate layer" with .... looks at 3.3.1 ... oh, nevermind.
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[ 5.2 ms ] story [ 50.8 ms ] threadOnce the basic logic gates are designed, it's easy (though tedious and time-consuming) to build arbitrarily large computing devices. One famous example is a multifunction calculator, documented at < http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/User:BaronW >.
This is the kind of game I would recommend to hackers - it definitely supports the mind set of figuring out the rules in a system, then exploiting them to build something incredible.
For example, I remember discovering that if you build your dwarf fortress in certain freezing climates, it was possible to take water from a flowing source underground, then release it aboveground, whereupon it would flash-freeze into solid walls that dwarves could stand on, tunnel through, or build on top of. That immediately led to Operation: Build An Enormous Ice Palace, a plan to create an aboveground megaplex by making dwarves haul unfrozen water bucket by bucket and pour it, like concrete, into a planned mold. (I was exploiting the loophole that water carried in a bucket does not freeze until dropped from the bucket.)
It was ridiculous, arbitrary, and destructive of my free time - but most games are anyway... so why not take a game that also challenges your hacking mindset?
http://www.quinapalus.com/wi-index.html
http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/User:Bidok#Animal_Logic
I guess this could, in theory, be used to create a Turing Complete computer. It might hit the entity limit of Quake 3 though.
PDF: http://www.skore.de/images/stories/Q3A/Q3A_Electronics.pdf
Perhaps that leads to his next challenge: upgrade the computing power of his DF contraption enough that he can reimplement Craigslist on top it!