A Turing Machine Handmade Out of Wood

It took Richard Ridel six months of tin­ker­ing in his work­shop to cre­ate this contraption–a mechan­i­cal Tur­ing machine made out of wood. The silent video above shows how the machine works. But if you’re left hang­ing, want­i­ng to know more, I’d rec­om­mend read­ing Ridel’s fif­teen page paper where he care­ful­ly doc­u­ments why he built the wood­en Tur­ing machine, and what pieces and steps went into the con­struc­tion.

If this video prompts you to ask, what exact­ly is a Tur­ing Machine?, also con­sid­er adding this short primer by philoso­pher Mark Jago to your media diet.

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via Boing­Bo­ing

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Free Online Com­put­er Sci­ence Cours­es

The Books on Young Alan Turing’s Read­ing List: From Lewis Car­roll to Mod­ern Chro­mat­ics

The LEGO Tur­ing Machine Gives a Quick Primer on How Your Com­put­er Works

The Enig­ma Machine: How Alan Tur­ing Helped Break the Unbreak­able Nazi Code

Hear the Christ­mas Car­ols Made by Alan Turing’s Com­put­er: Cut­ting-Edge Ver­sions of “Jin­gle Bells” and “Good King Wences­las” (1951)