frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Open Source @Github

fp.

Open in hackernews

Accidentally Turing-Complete

https://beza1e1.tuxen.de/articles/accidentally_turing_complete.html
25•bschne•1y ago

Comments

panstromek•1y ago
Nice list. Some of those are arguably not accidental, TypeScript type system seems kinda obvious to be turing complete when it tries to describe dynamically typed langauage.
WalterGR•1y ago
x86 MOV instruction: “The mov-only DOOM [game] renders approximately one frame every 7 hours, so playing this version requires somewhat increased patience.”
a_cardboard_box•1y ago
Rule 110 is only Turing-Complete if you have an infinitely large array of cells, and are able to initialize it with an infinite repeating pattern. If I'm not mistaken, HTML+CSS can only do a fixed-sized array.

With a Turing-Complete language, if a program runs out of memory on one machine, you can run the same code on a bigger machine without modifying it, and it can use the additional memory. With fixed-length rule 110, you need to modify the code if you want to use more memory.

256_•1y ago
This is addressed in the second paragraph of TFA:

"Stuff which is somehow limited (stack overflows, arbitrary configuration, etc) is still considered Turing complete, since all "physical" Turing machines are resource limited."

In my opinion, worrying about infinite memory, in regards to Turing completeness, makes the task of implementing computation much less interesting.

Also, I'm pretty sure CSS only does one generation (or a finite number of them) before stopping anyway.

256_•1y ago
Logic in Doom is particularly interesting to me. Apparently you can fit ~64k logic gates in a map (using the method described). From [1]:

"As the DOOM engine was not designed to be an interpreter, there are some constraints on our programs written against it. The biggest one is how large our programs can be. Since each gate uses at least one tag, we can use this as a metric to derive an upper-bound on the size of a program. As the DOOM engine uses 16-bit tags, this means we can have, at most, 65535 gates. This is not a particularly large number. We may be able to implement a very small CPU but this limit will be hit pretty quickly I believe."

The z80 had ~8,500 transistors. The 8086 had ~29,000 (checking Wikipedia). You could get far fewer if you use a 1-bit microarchitecture, I'm sure. I think there was a DEC (PDP?) computer that used that trick to have a really low transistor count, but I don't remember what it was called.

The real problem is RAM; for this you may as well cheat and modify Doom's code to add a RAM chip, and I/O while you're at it.

You could create a CPU in Doom implementing an architecture for which a C compiler exists, capable of compiling Doom, and run it in the CPU in Doom. For "reasonable" speed you'd have to do more than one simulation step per frame render (in the host Doom). If you ran it for long enough maybe you could get a full frame of Doom in Doom.

[1]: https://calabi-yau.space/blog/doom.html

karmakaze•1y ago
Doom running in TypeScript static type checker[0].

> half trillion lines of types totaling 177 terabytes ran through the type checker around the clock for 12 days to get the first frame

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43184291

karmakaze•1y ago
My favorite one is Conway's Game of Life. It's perhaps the least surprising one, but it's also the most visually appealing. Really like this video that leads up to making the Game of Life in itself[0]. It's something you can show a non-technical person and they can get a sense of how crazy it is that something so simple can do anything.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk2MH9O4pXY

Iceland, One of Three Countries That Still Hunts Whales, Considers Ban

https://e360.yale.edu/digest/iceland-whaling-ban
1•speckx•29s ago•0 comments

Amp is now free to use when you bring your own compute and model subs/keys

https://ampcode.com/news/free-agent
1•jhchabran•1m ago•0 comments

Jensen Huang Became AI's Taylor Swift

https://www.economist.com/interactive/1843/2026/09/03/how-jensen-huang-became-ais-taylor-swift
1•tolugenius•3m ago•1 comments

Show HN: Memory plugin for coding agents that remembers your coding&chat history

https://github.com/deepmemteam/deepmem-claude-plugin
2•deepmem•3m ago•0 comments

People Who Can't Picture Anything Are Rewriting the Science of Imagination

https://dailyneuron.com/aphantasia-mental-imagery-brain-network/
1•giuliomagnifico•3m ago•0 comments

Global AI stocks fall as industry chiefs call for slowing development

https://www.reuters.com/world/china/ai-linked-asian-stocks-slump-after-top-lab-ceos-call-slowing-...
1•1vuio0pswjnm7•5m ago•2 comments

An AI deal with China could get Donald Trump his Nobel Prize

https://economist.com/by-invitation/2026/09/14/an-ai-deal-with-china-could-get-donald-trump-his-n...
2•andsoitis•7m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Pelican-bicycle alternatives (updated)

https://gally.net/temp/20260914pelican-alternatives/index.html
1•tkgally•7m ago•0 comments

Update on Security at METR

https://metr.org/blog/2026-08-31-security-update/
1•tosh•8m ago•0 comments

Don't Fall for a Mystery Shopping Job Scam

https://www.mouseprint.org/2026/09/14/dont-fall-for-a-mystery-shopping-job-scam/
1•speckx•10m ago•0 comments

The Ocean Is Not a Road: Fix Your Fantasy Map [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5kEbkeX_94
1•skibz•10m ago•0 comments

Temporal raises $550M at a $12.55B valuation

https://temporal.io/blog/temporal-raises-usd550m-series-e-at-usd12-55b-valuation-ai
1•gk1•11m ago•0 comments

The powerful millionaires hiding in plain sight

https://www.npr.org/sections/planet-money/2026/09/14/g-s1-143041/the-powerful-millionaires-hiding...
2•ripe•11m ago•1 comments

The AI-as-Normal-Technology view of loss-of-control incidents

https://www.normaltech.ai/p/the-ai-as-normal-technology-view
1•guillego•11m ago•0 comments

Volkswagen Just Built an EV That Can Go Nearly 900 Miles on a Charge

https://www.motor1.com/news/808114/vw-mission-efficiency-concept-specs-photos/
2•thelastgallon•12m ago•0 comments

Show HN: LinXiv v0.5.0: Headless research-DB image with iroh for self-hosting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LW_o-F2Msvo
1•jeuribe•13m ago•0 comments

Fusion Centers Are Asking for Subpoena Power Without a Court Order

https://danboguslaw.substack.com/p/spy-hubs-ask-congress-for-dangerous
1•iamnothere•13m ago•0 comments

FAFO: Blocking malicious traffic on my NixOS server

https://sighery.com/posts/fafo/
2•Sighery•13m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Good News Digest – Daily stories of progress, kindness and discovery

https://goodnewsdigest.app/
2•cjami•13m ago•0 comments

Oil Industry Moves to Weaken Proposed Fossil Fuel Advertising Ban in France

https://www.desmog.com/2026/09/11/exclusive-oil-industry-moves-to-weaken-proposed-fossil-fuel-adv...
1•robtherobber•14m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Music visualizer that knows the drop is coming (iOS 27 on-device)

https://www.prismatic.fm/music/conductor
1•a-kaul•14m ago•0 comments

Why Mortgage Bonds Are at Risk If Rates Rise–and If They Fall

https://www.wsj.com/finance/why-mortgage-bonds-are-at-risk-if-rates-riseand-if-they-fall-ff897dd5
1•burger_moon•15m ago•0 comments

Trump Jr.'S Wedding Was Bankrolled by Russian Oligarch Close to Putin

https://www.propublica.org/article/donald-trump-jr-wedding-bankrolled-russian-oligarch-umar-kreml...
8•embedding-shape•15m ago•0 comments

Could AI Kill Off Humans?

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/could-ai-really-kill-off-humans/
1•lelele•16m ago•0 comments

Streaming TV Prices Rising Faster Than Cable Ever Did

https://www.techdirt.com/2026/09/14/streaming-tv-prices-rising-faster-than-cable-ever-did/
2•speckx•17m ago•0 comments

Ten Years of Vapor

https://blog.vapor.codes/posts/ten-years-of-vapor/
1•frizlab•18m ago•0 comments

The Monkey Type Online Free Typing Tool

https://themonkeytype.com
1•junaidbilalbaig•18m ago•0 comments

The Complete Guide to pstack Pt. 2

https://twitter.com/poteto/status/2097732320606507506
1•tosh•19m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Real-world attack credential lists from our own honeypot network

https://github.com/lurescope/top-attack-lists
1•lurescope•20m ago•0 comments

Show HN: MS MARCO click-translation expansion tables ("poor man's" DSSM)

https://huggingface.co/mirth/msmarco-expansion-tables
2•hessdalenlight•20m ago•1 comments