
Ask HN: If Donald Knuth woke up 10,000 years ago, how would he build a computer? - backpropagated
Assume he knows what he knows now, but is a strapping young man.
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stonemetal
He wouldn't. He would finish TAOCP. Frankly the math is more important than
any chunk of hardware.

Even if he just got really bored and wanted hardware, I don't think he would
have the knowledge to do it. It is one thing to know how to use all the tools,
it is another thing altogether to know how to engineer high quality tools with
nothing but sticks, stones, and no help.

~~~
Scarblac
This is the man who, when he wanted good looking typesetting for the second
volume of TAOCP, spent over a decade making TeX to do that with.

Of course he would stop and build a computer first. And universities where
people would read his books, banking and mail institutions to send people
checks through after they report bugs, and so on. One needs to have some
preconditions in place first, obviously.

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greenyoda
I think that even a mechanical computer like Babbage's would be pretty far
beyond what you could accomplish with the technology available 10K years ago -
to make precision gears you'd need a machine shop, and to build that you'd
need to be able to build the machines and tools, and to make those you'd need
to be able to refine metals, etc. 10000 years ago was 5000 years before the
Bronze Age and 3000 years before the Iron Age. It would be hard for one person
to reconstruct all that technological infrastructure single-handedly (and as
far as I know, Knuth knows a lot about CS but not a whole lot about
metalworking). And to build any kind of electronics (e.g., vacuum tubes or
relays) you'd have to be able to manufacture glass, wire, etc. Forget
semiconductors...

(I assume that by "computer" you mean a device that can store a program in
memory and execute it.)

This reminds me of an old quote from Mr. Spock on Star Trek:

"I am endeavoring, ma'am, to construct a mnemonic memory circuit using stone
knives and bearskins." [1]

[1]
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0708455/quotes](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0708455/quotes)

~~~
haspoken
With a little creativity. computers can be made out quite primitive items. Of
course, one might need to define what constitutes a computer.

The Tinkertoy Computer

A. K. Dewdney's article, "Computer Recreations: An ancient rope-and-pulley
computer is unearthed in the jungle of Apraphul

Domino computer

[http://www.blikstein.com/paulo/projects/project_water.html](http://www.blikstein.com/paulo/projects/project_water.html)

Lehmer sieves

How to Build a Working Digital Computer (1967)by Edward Alcosser, James P.
Phillips, and Allen M. Wolk

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nekopa
He would bang stones together. Then, on finding the different tones they make
he would discover the inherent math in music. He would then utilize this to
make a basic program to make people dance. From this he would find out about
looping (repeating sections of music).

Then he would invent a way for others to program (musical notation) and start
to write it on cave walls. But, unhappy with the quality of the charcoal used
for writing he would devote years to developing a new type of ink capable of
pretty printing.

Finally he would retreat to a distant cave to work on The Art of People
Programming.

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amttc
I don't think he would build a computer. 10k years ago was before writing. I
imagine if anyone were transported that far back they'd want to focus on the
stuff that has a huge impact (hygiene, food, basic medicine, potable water,
writing, architecture, etc.) for the people at that time period.

There's a lot of common things we all know that we take for granted that would
make a world of difference for people so long ago.

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saywahat
Most readily available material is sticks. Make em into gears powered by water
flow in a river. Your very own prehistoric calculator. After ciliization
starts mining and improving it's ability to shape raw materials your computers
can advance with it.

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pvaldes
Version 1:

Hey mum!, what's this animal?

Oh, my fungus!, a human thing!, aren't they extinct? throw your scholar
computer to it, and crawl as fast as you can, little blob!.

Alternative version:

1)-Chose the colour of your computer

2)-Press a button.

"Thanks Mr. Knuth, your new computer will be 3D-printed in computer modern and
delivered in 20 minutes".

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percept
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quipu](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quipu)

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Gibbon1
He'd build the the Abacus 10000BC using advanced wooden disk and stick
technology.

