From owner-cse584-sp07-list@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU Mon Feb 19 11:55:11 2007 Received: from ares.cse.buffalo.edu (ares.cse.Buffalo.EDU [128.205.32.79]) by castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU (8.13.6/8.12.10) with ESMTP id l1JGtAkP027830 for ; Mon, 19 Feb 2007 11:55:10 -0500 (EST) Received: from front3.acsu.buffalo.edu (upfront.acsu.buffalo.edu [128.205.4.140]) by ares.cse.buffalo.edu (8.13.6/8.13.6) with SMTP id l1JGt04H009547 for ; Mon, 19 Feb 2007 11:55:00 -0500 (EST) Received: (qmail 1490 invoked from network); 19 Feb 2007 16:55:00 -0000 Received: from mailscan7.acsu.buffalo.edu (128.205.6.158) by front3.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 19 Feb 2007 16:55:00 -0000 Received: (qmail 16634 invoked from network); 19 Feb 2007 16:55:00 -0000 Received: from defer.acsu.buffalo.edu (128.205.7.58) by front2.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 19 Feb 2007 16:55:00 -0000 Received: (qmail 14670 invoked from network); 19 Feb 2007 16:54:23 -0000 Received: from listserv.buffalo.edu (128.205.7.35) by defer.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 19 Feb 2007 16:54:23 -0000 Received: by LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (LISTSERV-TCP/IP release 14.5) with spool id 3414406 for CSE584-SP07-LIST@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU; Mon, 19 Feb 2007 11:54:21 -0500 Delivered-To: cse584-sp07-list@listserv.buffalo.edu Received: (qmail 7134 invoked from network); 19 Feb 2007 16:49:35 -0000 Received: from mailscan3.acsu.buffalo.edu (128.205.6.135) by listserv.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 19 Feb 2007 16:49:35 -0000 Received: (qmail 12543 invoked from network); 19 Feb 2007 16:49:33 -0000 Received: from castor.cse.buffalo.edu (128.205.32.14) by smtp5.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 19 Feb 2007 16:49:33 -0000 Received: from castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU (rapaport@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU (8.13.6/8.12.10) with ESMTP id l1JGnWTW027624 for ; Mon, 19 Feb 2007 11:49:32 -0500 (EST) Received: (from rapaport@localhost) by castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU (8.13.6/8.12.9/Submit) id l1JGnWMc027623 for cse584-sp07-list@listserv.buffalo.edu; Mon, 19 Feb 2007 11:49:32 -0500 (EST) X-UB-Relay: (castor.cse.buffalo.edu) X-PM-EL-Spam-Prob: : 7% Message-ID: <200702191649.l1JGnWMc027623@castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU> Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2007 11:49:32 -0500 Reply-To: "William J. Rapaport" Sender: "Philosophy of Computer Science, Spring 2007" From: "William J. Rapaport" Subject: WHAT IS A COMPUTER? To: CSE584-SP07-LIST@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU Precedence: list List-Help: , List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Owner: List-Archive: X-UB-Relay: (castor.cse.buffalo.edu) X-DCC-Buffalo.EDU-Metrics: castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU 1029; Body=0 Fuz1=0 Fuz2=0 X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.0 required=5.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00,SUBJ_ALL_CAPS autolearn=no version=3.1.7 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.7 (2006-10-05) on ares.cse.buffalo.edu X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV 0.88.6/2603/Mon Feb 19 09:46:59 2007 on ares.cse.buffalo.edu X-Virus-Status: Clean Status: R Content-Length: 858 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Subject: WHAT IS A COMPUTER? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Or: How to compute with locomotives... I thought you might find the following quote of interest: "In 1994 Adam Chalcraft and Michael Greene...and later Maurice Margenstern...designed railroad layouts that simulate the operation of a computer. The machine is programmed by setting switch points in a specific initial pattern; then a locomotive running over the tracks resets some of the switches as it passes; the result of the computation is read from the final confiuration of the switches." - Hayes, Brian (2007), "Trains of Thought", American Scientist 95(2) (March-April): 108-113. I'll put a copy online; go to the What is a computer? website in a day or so.