Mastodawn

Corey Maley, philosophy professor at Purdue, talks about analog computation (45 minute video with 45 minutes of questions after):

https://coreymaley.net/about-me/

sounds like he has a book (*The analog mind *) that’s been stuck in development hell since ChatGPT sucked all the oxygen out of the area of cognition and computation.

I’m kind of sad his overview of analog computation doesn’t mention harmonic analyzers, tide prediction machines, or water models of the economy (not just a Terry Pratchett conceit!), but early in the talk he has some nice historical mechanical analog machines (multiplier, integrator, step function generator)

He’s working toward a view of computation that goes beyond Turing and Church discrete computability, but also pushing back in the analog=continuous notion
#analogComputing #cognitivescience

About Me – Corey J. Maley

Hackaday Feb 17

Running Pokémon with a Compass and Straightedge

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://hackaday.com/2026/02/17/running-pokemon-with-a-compass-and-straightedge/

13 Feb 17

Running Pokémon with a Compass and Straightedge https://hackaday.com/2026/02/17/running-pokemon-with-a-compass-and-straightedge/
#SoftwareHacks #Analogcomputing #Compassandstraightedge #Emulation

Running Pokémon With A Compass And Straightedge

The ancient question of whether or not it’s possible to construct a circle with the same area as a given square using only a drawing compass and straightedge was finally answered in 1882, where it …

Hackaday

Thomas Weibel Dec 28

A year ago I started building first prototypes of a device that would be capable of calculating #moon phases based on the historical Metonic cycle. The result was „Meton“, a 3D-printed lunar phase calculator. So if you need an #opendata moon machine, go ahead.

https://www.thomasweibel.ch/?post=rechner-aus-dem-drucker

Or build it yourself, from oak and steel.

#astronomy #astrophysics #mathematics #antiquity #history #3dprint #mechanics #moonphase #openglam #digitalhumanities #diy #analogcomputing

Reddit Tech VN Bot Dec 17

"Phương pháp máy tính tương tự mới giảm mạnh năng lượng đào tạo AI. Công nghệ mới giúp tiết kiệm hàng chục lần năng lượng cho AI. #AI #AnalogComputing #EnergyEfficiency #TríTuệNhânTạo #CôngNghệ"

https://www.reddit.com/r/singularity/comments/1pp4ft4/new_analog_computing_method_slashes_ai_training/

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Prof Lutz Nov 3

@thomasweibel @johncarlosbaez I guess anyone interested in analog mechanical computers knows Titiana Van Vark... If not, see: https://www.tatjavanvark.nl/

I don't know the validity of her works on the Antikythera Mechanism, though. I'm most subjugated by her Fourier series machines.

#AnalogComputing

Tatjana J. van Vark ~ Main page ~ Welcome

AbstactFi Foundation, The works of Tatjana J. van Vark, tjvv

Stefan Wolfrum

Oct 20

Ich habe mal aufgeschrieben, wie ich das gemacht habe, dass ich in #VSCode meine #gnuplot Datei gleich rechts daneben (quasi) live aktualisiert sehe, nach Änderungen … 🤖 #blog #bloggen #blogging #analogcomputing
https://blog.metawops.de/tools/gnuplot-in-vscode/

gnuplot mit live preview in VSCode

Wie man gnuplot Dateien in VSCode bearbeiten und direkt daneben ein (quasi) live Preview der Grafik sehen kann.

👨‍💻 Stefans Logbuch

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Ross Gayler Oct 16

@giacomoi @albertcardona @RuthMalan

I am hoping to see lots more practical developments along the lines of: This physical phenomenon does something (by virtue of being itself) that is isomorphic to some computation. How do we couple it to the environment so that the naturally occurring computation corresponds to something we care about?

To be honest, I am a little surprised that there haven't been more attempts at modern analog computers. This paper by Jaeger et al gives some clue as to the potential for extracting computational services from physic: http://arxiv.org/abs/2307.15408

I suspect that one contributor to the lack of progress on modern analog computing is the difficulty of mapping from the user's problem of interest to the computation offered by the physical substrate. In the AOC case you need to map the user's problem to a fix-point problem (because that's all the hardware can solve). This paper by Kleyko et al deals with that issue by proposing that Vector Symbolic Architectures could be used as an intermediate abstraction between the user's problem and a wide range of nonstandard computational hardware: http://arxiv.org/abs/2106.05268

#neuromorphic #AnalogComputing #VectorSymbolicArchitectures #VSA #HyperdimensionalComputing #HDC

Toward a formal theory for computing machines made out of whatever physics offers: extended version

Approaching limitations of digital computing technologies have spurred research in neuromorphic and other unconventional approaches to computing. Here we argue that if we want to systematically engineer computing systems that are based on unconventional physical effects, we need guidance from a formal theory that is different from the symbolic-algorithmic theory of today's computer science textbooks. We propose a general strategy for developing such a theory, and within that general view, a specific approach that we call "fluent computing". In contrast to Turing, who modeled computing processes from a top-down perspective as symbolic reasoning, we adopt the scientific paradigm of physics and model physical computing systems bottom-up by formalizing what can ultimately be measured in any physical substrate. This leads to an understanding of computing as the structuring of processes, while classical models of computing systems describe the processing of structures.

arXiv.org

Joost Rekveld Oct 7

I'm not really looking for analogue computers anymore but I could not resist this small one: a gorgeous Philbrick Researches RP-F manifold from around 1966. I have not yet checked if it is still operational...

#AnalogComputing #PhilbrickResearches #SystemsThatMatter