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8-bit Turing complete computer that I made in Factorio (2019)

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Re: 8-bit Turing complete computer that I made in Factorio (2019)

#12

I started playing Factorio and fell in love. Then I started to watch tutorials on how to make better iron smelters and the guy said he has 1000 hours of Factorio gameplay. I quit Factorio right there. I decided to spend my time learning something IRL and started learning how to make DAPPs.

> I decided to spend my time learning something IRL

One could argue that spending 1,000 hours in Factorio building cool stuff is still doing something IRL. It's just a different kind of something IRL.

To be clear, I am not assuming that you were making a value judgement about the Factorio player :-) But I feel the need to share this point of view nonetheless.

The Buddhist monk finds enlightenment by simply being still. This is constructive living - in the sense that it is not destructive to nature / one's surroundings.

Along similar lines, immersing one's self in Factorio is an actively entertaining form of being constructively still in the context of one's surroundings.

So is reading. Listening to music. Etc.

Not everybody needs to build stuff or achieve things IRL. And that's perfectly fine.

Re: 8-bit Turing complete computer that I made in Factorio (2019)

#13
post #6

It always amazes me when people make things like this. It feels like there's something special about games that can be programmed within the game, because some of the best games all have that feature: Minecraft, Terraria, Dwarf Fortress, Factorio, etc. Though it's hard to even specify that because there are some where it's not really part of the game per se (e.g. arbitrary code execution in Super Mario World) though…

I guess it was actually a 16-bit computer in that game, I had to go look it up again because I had forgotten the name 0x10c a long time ago:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/0x10c

https://archive.org/details/0x10c

https://www.planetminecraft.com/blog/introducing-notchs-new-...

Too bad it got cancelled, it would've been interesting.

Re: 8-bit Turing complete computer that I made in Factorio (2019)

#14
post #6

It always amazes me when people make things like this. It feels like there's something special about games that can be programmed within the game, because some of the best games all have that feature: Minecraft, Terraria, Dwarf Fortress, Factorio, etc. Though it's hard to even specify that because there are some where it's not really part of the game per se (e.g. arbitrary code execution in Super Mario World) though…

It always amazes me when people make things like this.

It's even been done with Conway's Life.

https://www.conwaylife.com/wiki/Turing_machine

It's too bad Notch never finished that space-themed game he was once planning. I remember when HN went crazy with implementations of his spec for a simple, memory-mapped 8-bit computer that was going to be central to that game.

I'm planning to introduce scripting into my procedurally generated space game with over 2^100 locations. All entity AIs will be s-expressions, which implement a blackboard architecture. This can readily be mapped to both finite state machines and behavior trees. What's more, a variety of scripting language subsets could compile to the same s-expressions. I want to let players license their scripts to other players for in-game money. Players can also perhaps use "hacking" powers, where they can modify scripts of other entities or ships using regexes. (With the caveat that if they cause a syntax error, they get "feedback damage.") Also, these s-expressions can be subject to genetic algorithms, and will also "breed" in the wild. (As described by Koza in his book Genetic Programming)

Re: 8-bit Turing complete computer that I made in Factorio (2019)

#16
post #7

I started playing Factorio and fell in love. Then I started to watch tutorials on how to make better iron smelters and the guy said he has 1000 hours of Factorio gameplay. I quit Factorio right there. I decided to spend my time learning something IRL and started learning how to make DAPPs.

It's funny because to a lot of people making DAPPs is as pointless as Factorio (though I think I may just be putting Ethereum poo-poo out there in general). That said, I've been feeling similarly - playing on Steam and seeing folks w/ massive play times thinking, I should go do something productive. Where did you start off for learning DAPPs? Do you have any goals in mind?

This guy is pretty good https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3681ZYbDSSk . I'm just working on a test Ethereum lottery http://defi-raffle.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/ to understand the basic concepts.

Re: 8-bit Turing complete computer that I made in Factorio (2019)

#17

I started playing Factorio and fell in love. Then I started to watch tutorials on how to make better iron smelters and the guy said he has 1000 hours of Factorio gameplay. I quit Factorio right there. I decided to spend my time learning something IRL and started learning how to make DAPPs.

> I decided to spend my time learning something IRL One could argue that spending 1,000 hours in Factorio building cool stuff is still doing something IRL. It's just a different kind of something IRL. To be clear, I am not assuming that you were making a value judgement about the Factorio player :-) But I feel the need to share this point of view nonetheless. The Buddhist monk finds enlightenment by simply being stil…

"Not everybody needs to build stuff or achieve things IRL. And that's perfectly fine." Probably the answer to the Fermi Paradox.

Re: 8-bit Turing complete computer that I made in Factorio (2019)

#18

I started playing Factorio and fell in love. Then I started to watch tutorials on how to make better iron smelters and the guy said he has 1000 hours of Factorio gameplay. I quit Factorio right there. I decided to spend my time learning something IRL and started learning how to make DAPPs.

Where do you find the inspiration and/or motivation to start learning something like DAPPs?

I just don't see the point, probably because I lack creativity. But what benefit to learning DAPPs do you see?

Re: 8-bit Turing complete computer that I made in Factorio (2019)

#19
post #6

It always amazes me when people make things like this. It feels like there's something special about games that can be programmed within the game, because some of the best games all have that feature: Minecraft, Terraria, Dwarf Fortress, Factorio, etc. Though it's hard to even specify that because there are some where it's not really part of the game per se (e.g. arbitrary code execution in Super Mario World) though…

It always amazes me when people make things like this. It's even been done with Conway's Life. https://www.conwaylife.com/wiki/Turing_machine It's too bad Notch never finished that space-themed game he was once planning. I remember when HN went crazy with implementations of his spec for a simple, memory-mapped 8-bit computer that was going to be central to that game. I'm planning to introduce scripting into my proced…

I have the idea in my head for a game that gives you a somewhat basic UI and lets you write programs to improve it that are shareable.

Not sure if that fits into what you're planning at all, but feel free to use the concept.

Re: 8-bit Turing complete computer that I made in Factorio (2019)

#20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I decided to spend my time learning something IRL One could argue that spending 1,000 hours in Factorio building cool stuff is still doing something IRL. It's just a different kind of something IRL. To be clear, I am not assuming that you were making a value judgement about the Factorio player :-) But I feel the need to share this point of view nonetheless. The Buddhist monk finds enlightenment by simply being stil…

"Not everybody needs to build stuff or achieve things IRL. And that's perfectly fine." Probably the answer to the Fermi Paradox.

I disagree. There's an asymmetry -- you only need one expansionist civilization to disturb the pristine universe that we observe, no matter how many civilizations are content with staying home and remaining quiet.

(Relevant: the unilateralist's curse, https://nickbostrom.com/papers/unilateralist.pdf.)

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