abstractmachine

I just saw this on New Scientist: programming robots with strings. No, I’m not talking about character-based programming, nor am I talking about storing information in parallel dimensions as in M-Theory. I mean quite simply that you can use string (wire, rope, chain, vine, …) to program a robot. Better still, this system was designed in Alexandria all the way back in 60 A.D.

I mention this because I’m currently working on a larger framework for looking at programs and code as epiphenomena within a larger process called « physicalisation ». I have talked in the past about plant-based algorithms, and occasionally referenced tinkertoy computers, but I had yet to discover this fascinating rope method for programming. We’ll have to discuss this further in tomorrow’s plot.