a tabletop non-electronic, human-scale, very-slow computer with an 8x6 monochromatic screen. a prototype of beans computing.

following a simple set of rules, you can collaborate with it to compute and display an animation of a ball bouncing in the walls of the screen, one frame at a time.

downloads

bouncer2d-8x6 ready to be printed (pdf)

structure

the computer has two pages, both of them with "cells". it has a total of four sections.

first page:

• top row: state of the machine (encoded)
• middle block: process cells
• bottom row: next state of the machine (encoded)

second page:

• 8x6 monochromatic screen

how to use:

• first of all, choose two classes of elements, A and B (e.g. A="black beans" and B="chickpeas").
• each cell can only have one of those elements at a given time.

for the top row

• if this is the first iteration, fill it with an arbitrary combination of your elements (e.g. all the cells with a chickpea in each)
• otherwise, when you finish an iteration and you are ready to start a new one, transfer the elements from the bottom row to the top row, keeping the same order.

for all the other cells

• observe the cells in the computer: each one has a name at the top, and a list of 1 to 3 cell names that correspond to its inputs.
• for each cell, remember and apply the rule: put an element of class A inside the cell only when all of its inputs are B. otherwise put inside an element of class B.
• example rule: put a black bean inside the cell only when all of its inputs are chickpeas. otherwise, put a chickpea inside.
• when you finish iterating through all the cells, you would have completed a frame of the animation in the screen. capture it somehow!