Kevin's Watch

Ok - it's silly season in the UK (well - it's just ended really, but let's think of this as a lingering after effect, a brief and wistful nod to the halcyon days of a beautiful summer.......) so I ask the following. Not to be done in one's head like the st Ives question - but firstly to examine whether the premise is correct and secondly (if it is) to put it in to perspective.

I read that the binary language of computing - the 1 or 0 being just two 'states' if you like - could just as easily be represented by the standing or fallen position of a Domino, and that given sufficient dominoes and space, there was no calculation/process that could not be replicated by an arrangement of the same, as could be carried out by a conventional computer. If this indeed be the case, I ask the following; if the earth's surface were flat enough for the arrangement to be laid out, would it be large enough to contain an arrangement of dominoes that would replicate the function of the latest apple iPhone?

Answers on a postcard to...........

aTOMiC wrote:I possess neither the cranial capacity nor the opposable digits required to solve such a puzzle.

Good luck to you sapients who make the attempt.

Besides. You need Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson to solve this riddle.

What he said

peter wrote: would it be large enough to contain an arrangement of dominoes that would replicate the function of the latest apple iPhone?

Answers on a postcard to...........

Yes. And no.
Yes, in that it could perform all the functions...
but you'd have to choose...how long do you want to wait? And how much are you willing to "pay." [[not just in money]].
For instance...if you wanted to watch 10 seconds of cat-meme video stream on your earth-phone, you MIGHT get through it before everyone died from flame, smoke inhalation, oxygen deprivation, baking. Which order probably depends on exactly where you are standing.
You could make your dominoes out of some metal---that would get rid of the flame and delay the smoke and oxygen depletion...give you a few extra vid's maybe, if you had appropriate protections, before the planet was covered in molten former-dominoes. [you'd still bake...naked people fast, covered people a bit slower]
[[The dominoes COULD flip slow enough NOT to heat up like that, EXCEPT, the lag from flip-trigger distance means they have to flip faster---way the hell faster...guestimate is no known material could actually flip fast enough without disintegrating mid-flip, but I liked the flaming, metal covered planet in previous too much to not mention it.]]

Well, I'm glad we sorted that out!



(Only took me nine months to get back here but hey - I got distracted! )