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Video Tutorial 1: Overview of the Fetch operation of a fully functional simple digital computer, the "SIMCO".

Video Tutorial 2 (first half): Tracing the operation of the "simco" digital computer, logic gate by logic gate, as it follows a computer program to sound an alarm when a window is open.

Video Tutorial 2 (second half): Tracing the operation of the "simco" digital computer, logic gate by logic gate, as it follows a computer program to sound an alarm when a window is open.

Video Tutorial 2 (End of Part 2): Tracing the operation of the "simco" digital computer, logic gate by logic gate, as it follows a computer program to sound an alarm when a window is open.

Articles
Programming the SIMCO in Assembly Language

What Is A Computer? Computer Programming, The Purpose of All Computers

Building Simple Machines That Make Decisions

Getting Started Using Programmable Logic Devices


Build and program a simple digital computer - About

The book "An Introduction to Elementary Computer and Compiler Design" by Dennis R. Steele was a watershed book for me...it is the book that caused me to become a Christian, and the laminated computer schematic on this website is taken from the design in that book. When I was 13, my parents divorced. Prior to the divorce, I was a straight A student and the academic valedictorian of my class in the 7th grade. Just 3 short years after the divorce, my grades were abissimal, my life was a wreck, and I dropped out of high school.

While waiting in the high school library to take the GED examination, my eyes caught sight of the book, "Engines of Creation. The Coming Era of Nanotechnology" by Eric Drexler. The book served as a gateway into the twin worlds of materialism and atheism, and in short order led me to the writings of Richard Brodie (Virus of the Mind), Daniel Dennett (Consciousness Explained), and Richard Dawkins (The Selfish Gene)...to name a few.

Materialism is simply the belief that matter operating under the laws of physics is all that there is. Under this world view...mind, spirit, or consciousness is a mere abiration...an effect of neurons or switches firing and interacting in the right patterns and sequences. There is no mind, merely matter in motion, and consequently there is no all knowing Creator Mind (God) that caused the Universe and all that is in it to come into being, because it is the universe itself (matter in motion) that causes the effect or illusion of self aware mind. And if there is no God, then there is no absolute Moral Right or Wrong, either...merely cause and effect behavior.

Assimilating an atheist / materialist world view completely destroyed me. It has destroyed our culture, and it will destroy you.

It is the reason why high school students are walking into schools with assault rifles and murdering their fellow students (In any materialist world view, murder is not wrong..."culturally unacceptable, perhaps", but never wrong)

As cute and charming as "Hollywood" robots such as R2-D2 or Rosie from the Jetsons are, the belief that a machine can be made self aware is ultimately a matrialist belief. Such machines (including systems such as IBM Watson, etc.) are not self aware and do not have minds in fact, and will always be the province of fiction.

By the time I discovered the book "An Introduction to Elementary Computer and Compiler Design", I was a sold out atheist. I had already assimilated enough programming ideas from early exposure to BASIC programming in my elementary school years (and the wonderful electronics books by Forrest Mimms (Mimms is also a Christian)) to make the ideas of philosophers such as Daniel Dennett and Richard Dawkins seem plausible.

It was after reading, "An Introduction to Elementary Computer and Compiler Design", and getting my hands dirty and learning about the nitty gritty details of how a programmable computer actually works that the thought occurred to me "You know, there really is nothing in a computer that could be conscious". These were the first cracks in my athiesim...and the beginning of my new life in Christ.


There is widespread belief that a brain is a sort of biological computer, and that “computational processes” running in the brain are what ultimately give rise to consciousness or mind. The SIMCO (short for “SIMple COmputer) project challenges this belief by showing how computers work right down to their most basic level…the switch. Just as in biology the simplest unit of life is thought to be the cell, in both neuroscience and in the fields of computer engineering and artificial intelligence the simplest unit of thought is believed to be the switch. In neuroscience, these switches are themselves cells called neurons. In computer engineering and AI, these switches are called logic gates. By getting the user’s “hands dirty” and showing how both logic gates and neurons actually function, and how they function when connected together in networks to form both computers and brains, it becomes intuitively obvious that mind is nowhere to be found in the inner workings of a brain or any other sort of physical or computational process.

The SIMCO consists of a large 28" x 22" laminated map of the digital logic circuits comprising the SIMCO computer. Users can then use dry erase markers to “write” simple computer programs as “1’s and 0’s” onto the SIMCO’s computer memory, and trace the operation of the computer, logic gate by logic gate, easily writing and erasing 1’s and 0’s as the logic gates “change state”. The SIMCO is perhaps one of the simplest programmable digital computers you can build. It contains 8 programming instructions, including the all important ability to conditionally jump to new locations in memory (An "IF - THEN" instruction).

The astonishing fact about ALL modern day digital computers is that they are entirely built from 8 simple machines called logic gates. These gates are connected together like legos to create a computer or any other digital device. Perhaps an even more astonishing fact is that understanding how a logic gate works is probably even simpler than understanding arithmetic...if you know how to add and subtract, then you can learn how to design, build, and program your own simple digital computer.

Enjoy, and please send an email if you have any questions or comments to NoSpam AT ChristopherLind DOT COM (replace NoSpam with Chris)



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