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Scientists Built a Working Computer Out of Springs That Doesn't Use a Single Watt of Electricity: This bizarre mechanical computer has no wires or chips.
Edit: The above link is a readable version from the university. They link to the Nature Communications article which I have to say is pretty inscrutable, as in at first I thought it was the wrong link.
I mean, without actually reading the article I'm guessing it was different, but they built an analog computer 2100 years ago, so unless this was a really novel way to do that then yeah, those greeks have these guys beat by a couple of millenium.
You should check out the article, it appears the folks that made this spring computer have actually accomplished some things that previous mechanical computers weren't able to do. I'm not sure I understand how it functions, but I can imagine this being useful in unstable environments that a standard microchip might not work well in.
Stephenson is great for speculative sci-fi but the man simply chooses not to write out any resolution or epilogue in his stories. The books always end at the climax.
Logic gates using mechanical switches. It's not a particularly new idea. It used to be a bit of a punchline in GOFAI discussions that the medium didn't matter when creating intelligence, and that you could build a thinking machine out of meat or from rubber bands and beer cans. I'm paraphrasing, but that was the gist of it.
As Robert Ettinger once said, "Can you build a locomotive out of helium?" Technology may be able to produce minds some day, but it is entirely possible that wetware is the only thing that can produce conscious intelligence. In other words, you might need a very specific set of materials or elements, the same kind that are in our body now.
Anyone ever read Perdido Street Station? There was a really cool AI type of thing that was all mechanical in the junkyard, if I remember correctly. I read it last a long time ago, so I might be off a bit, but it was such a cool concept to a younger me. This seems similar.
I was impressed by the mechanical computer at the ‘Sagrada Familiar’ Cathedral - used to calculate balancing column loads in three dimensions. It simultaneously calculates the loads for hundreds of pillars, such that sideways stresses were minimised.
The ‘computer’ is built out of a selection of small standardised weights, connected together by pieces of string, and hung ‘upside down’ compared to the real stone structure.
True vertical, represents zero sideways displacement, the “solution” is achieved by connecting strings and appropriate sized weights, such that forces balance.
Each ‘standard weight’ represents something like 10 tonnes or 100 tonnes in the real structure.
I presume that this ‘analogue string computer’ has now been replaced by a digital version. But the conception of this original ‘string computer’ is an impressive demonstration of what can be achieved by ‘primitive means’.
Most people walk by it, unaware of its true significance.
But it’s genius !
It’s well known that the Soviets had computers that ran entirely on water, using a complex hydraulic system of pumps and valves to solve differential equations. Some of these water computers were still in use into the 1980s.
Is this still binary, in this case useless! No need.
The interesting thing is ternary, quaternary or more.....even analogic of some sort to get closer to quantum.
Random_182f2565 | a day ago
Can run Doom?
PlasticCheebus | a day ago
It's not a computer until it can do this.
Distinguishedflyer | a day ago
it's working on string theory for now.
Idyotec | a day ago
*spring theory
Distinguishedflyer | a day ago
clever.
First_Sprinkles1022 | 17 hours ago
How’s that working out for you?
Nathan-Stubblefield | a day ago
They’ll have it running by next spring.
PlasticCheebus | a day ago
To what end, though?
johnpmac2 | a day ago
iDDOING
typewriter_ | 17 hours ago
My wifi is called IDDQD, and I found this comment to be very clever!
andthatswhyIdidit | 15 hours ago
It can add. so basically yes (just a question of scaling and speed of computing you are able to bear).
johno45 | a day ago
This website is cancer. You can’t click anything other than accept all for the cookie pop up. Pretty sure that’s illegal in the EU.
sintaur | a day ago
https://wp.stolaf.edu/news/from-springs-and-bolts-st-olaf-researchers-built-a-computer-that-doesnt-require-electricity
Edit: The above link is a readable version from the university. They link to the Nature Communications article which I have to say is pretty inscrutable, as in at first I thought it was the wrong link.
arah91 | a day ago
Should use add blockers, and cookie blockers. And anti trakers. I didn't see anything but the article.
johno45 | a day ago
Using iOS.
Benutztername7 | 13 hours ago
Firefox exists for ios, too...
anethma | a day ago
So am I, with adockers and tracker blockers etc.
Don’t see any of the crap mentioned.
Distinguishedflyer | a day ago
accept it accept it accept it accept it accept it accept it
PseudobrilliantGuy | a day ago
Not quite the sort of analog computing I was expecting. Interesting stuff!
FatAuthority | 21 hours ago
I mean, without actually reading the article I'm guessing it was different, but they built an analog computer 2100 years ago, so unless this was a really novel way to do that then yeah, those greeks have these guys beat by a couple of millenium.
Anthikythera Mechanism, for those who want to dive the rabbithole.
drislands | 18 hours ago
You should check out the article, it appears the folks that made this spring computer have actually accomplished some things that previous mechanical computers weren't able to do. I'm not sure I understand how it functions, but I can imagine this being useful in unstable environments that a standard microchip might not work well in.
Rxke2 | 11 hours ago
IIRC, Darpa and or nasa were looking into simple mechanical computers to use on Venus, because electronics just go there to die...
This might be just what they needed.
FatAuthority | 15 hours ago
Sounds cool. I will
Dunshire | a day ago
Sounds like a precursor to the nanoscale rod logic from Neil Stephenson’s book The Diamond Age.
H34vyGunn3r | a day ago
Holy shit I need to read this, that sounds like my kind of sci-fi
Cersad | 8 hours ago
Stephenson is great for speculative sci-fi but the man simply chooses not to write out any resolution or epilogue in his stories. The books always end at the climax.
H34vyGunn3r | 8 hours ago
Wow, that sounds like a mental illness
MuscaMurum | a day ago
Logic gates using mechanical switches. It's not a particularly new idea. It used to be a bit of a punchline in GOFAI discussions that the medium didn't matter when creating intelligence, and that you could build a thinking machine out of meat or from rubber bands and beer cans. I'm paraphrasing, but that was the gist of it.
OldLead4716 | a day ago
And legos https://hackaday.com/2025/07/20/8-bit-mechanical-computer-built-from-knex/
techysec | a day ago
Knex, it literally says Knex in the title…
OldLead4716 | a day ago
Til knex is not Lego.
Cultural_Tadpole874 | 10 hours ago
AND you learned not to add an s to Lego. Wow, big day for you!
braaaaaaainworms | 13 hours ago
Konrad Zuse built a few mechanical computers in the early 1900's
alexnoyle | 11 hours ago
As Robert Ettinger once said, "Can you build a locomotive out of helium?" Technology may be able to produce minds some day, but it is entirely possible that wetware is the only thing that can produce conscious intelligence. In other words, you might need a very specific set of materials or elements, the same kind that are in our body now.
Kuriente | a day ago
The oldest computers were mechanical, and there are endless ways to do this. This is the first I've heard of springs though.
USSMarauder | a day ago
Sounds like Memory Rick was able to do something while trapped in Jerry's mind
VonBrewskie | a day ago
Anyone ever read Perdido Street Station? There was a really cool AI type of thing that was all mechanical in the junkyard, if I remember correctly. I read it last a long time ago, so I might be off a bit, but it was such a cool concept to a younger me. This seems similar.
QVRedit | a day ago
I was impressed by the mechanical computer at the ‘Sagrada Familiar’ Cathedral - used to calculate balancing column loads in three dimensions. It simultaneously calculates the loads for hundreds of pillars, such that sideways stresses were minimised.
The ‘computer’ is built out of a selection of small standardised weights, connected together by pieces of string, and hung ‘upside down’ compared to the real stone structure.
True vertical, represents zero sideways displacement, the “solution” is achieved by connecting strings and appropriate sized weights, such that forces balance.
Each ‘standard weight’ represents something like 10 tonnes or 100 tonnes in the real structure.
I presume that this ‘analogue string computer’ has now been replaced by a digital version. But the conception of this original ‘string computer’ is an impressive demonstration of what can be achieved by ‘primitive means’.
Most people walk by it, unaware of its true significance.
But it’s genius !
drislands | 18 hours ago
> Silicon chips are incredibly fragile. They melt in extreme heat, fail under heavy radiation, and quickly dissolve in corrosive chemical vats.
Y'know, me too.
Taman_Should | 22 hours ago
It’s well known that the Soviets had computers that ran entirely on water, using a complex hydraulic system of pumps and valves to solve differential equations. Some of these water computers were still in use into the 1980s.
Radixx | a day ago
Call me when they do it with ants.
Royal_Standard_1960 | 10 hours ago
Not quite r/unexpecteddiscworld
Anthill Inside !!
FoxlyKei | a day ago
Anikythera mechanism been real quiet since this dropped.
conflateer | 22 hours ago
St. Olaf's College? Rose Nylund would be so proud.
homosapiens | 21 hours ago
Can it play Doom tho?
Wet_Side_Down | 21 hours ago
Analog computers existed long before digital computers
UntowardHatter | 10 hours ago
Well duh
cyrilio | 19 hours ago
This might be useful for creating a probe that functions on Venus. They'll need to miniaturize it though.
jxj24 | 7 hours ago
From my childhood: The Digi-Comp 1
disquieter | 7 hours ago
“Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?”
Frequent-Complaint-6 | a day ago
Is this still binary, in this case useless! No need. The interesting thing is ternary, quaternary or more.....even analogic of some sort to get closer to quantum.