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Is there a Turing-complete programming language for pen and paper? (feddit.org)
submitted 2 weeks ago by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml
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Let's say you wanted to use the mind as a calculator, and pen and paper as memory/registers/storage. Is there a programming language that works with pen and paper?

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[โ€“] 8 points 2 weeks ago (1 child)

A pen and paper is the original memory/storage/register and your brain is the original calculator so yes and no.

You literally carried out the outcome of your question by asking it

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  • [โ€“] 3 points 2 weeks ago

    This comment deserves more love.

    The word "computer" predates what most people think of as a computer by centuries. It was originally a job title, people were called computers because that's what they did compute. They would follow the instructions given to them by hand and then give the results to their supervisor.

    It also wasn't seen as an intellectual role and they were sometimes not appreciated as much as they should have been. A good example is how the women in the computing departments at NASA were treated, especially those that were also segregated because of their colour.

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