TAKASHI YAMAMIYA'S KINETIC COMPUTERS

About Kinetic Computers

When I encountered an essay by A. K. Dewdney over 20 years ago, somewhat I had been obsessed about mechanical implementation of boolean logic. The essay introduced ideas of kinetic binary calculator as an imaginary story of ancient civilization. This fantastic tale attracted me, and my theme at the art college became how to make a computer made from wood.

In 2008, my former boss Alan Kay gave me a Dewdney's book "The Tinkertoy Computer and Other Machinations", which includes the essay, and my enthusiasm came back. I made a couple of prototypes to realize boolean logic without electronics. This was the best example to show the idea that computer's concept is independent with hardware. In other words, I wanted to prove that computer was purely conceptual entity and you could make it from any material besides electronics parts.

Since then I keep making various mechanical logic machines in various tools and materials including laser cutters and 3-D printers.