A train that can calculate
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In 1936, Alan M. Turing developed the Turing machine, a computing machine with which anything can theoretically be calculated. This concept was translated by Austrian artists David Moises and Severin Hofmann into a model railway. The locomotive of the Turing Train Terminal runs through a program routine on a scratch tape and turns on read-write heads. Different types of switches trigger computational steps.
Three "bits" are first written by a locomotive into memory (the switches). The locomotive then drives through the system, sets the writing/reading heads and returns to its starting point. In order to calculate one bit, some 80 meters of track must be covered. The result of the calculation is a change in the track system. The train is able to carry out six mathematical operations. |
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Cool, I sent it to my other programmer friends and they loved this. It reminds me of Digicomp II, an old toy mechanical computer.
The first Digicomp was a system of rods and sliders and slots that performed logical operations. The second model, DigiComp II, was completely different, essentially a ripple counter, and you used it by sending a series of marbles down a system of troughs and switches on a sloped board.
Photos of Digicomp and Digicomp II including scans from the manual:
http://www.csparks.com/gallery/Digi-comp
An essay about Digicomp, I think this is where I heard about it first:
http://www.embedded.com/shared/printableArticle.jhtml?articleID=51200678
"a computing machine with which anything can theoretically be calculated."
More than theory, I believe the mathematicians can prove that a turing machine can calculate anything.
It can't calculate "anything", it can only make accurate calculations about symbols within a larger set of symbols that are logically consistent with each other. It all goes back to Godel's proof...
It's also interesting to note that the use of the model railroads is a reoccuring theme in contemporary 'new media' installations. Perhaps toy trains will reach iconic status for a new wave of artists?