MENACE: the pile of matchboxes which can learn
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN cites it as a fun, tangible way to teach machine learning, including to kids.
What it is
Matt Parker of Stand-up Maths demonstrates MENACE, Donald Michie's 1961 machine made of matchboxes that learns to play noughts and crosses through reinforcement. He builds and trains a physical version.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2018 to 2026.
What Hacker News said
Recommends jimktrains2 · 2023-01 · on “A Matchbox Game-Learning Machine (1991) [pdf]”
Stand up maths did an episode on a similar "machine" called MENACE (Machine Educable Noughts And Crosses Engine) that learns to play tick tac toe. [this video] The video description has additional links to resources: [LINK] [LINK]
Recommends Tachyooon · 2023-01 · on “A Matchbox Game-Learning Machine (1991) [pdf]”
Seems like this is what Matt Parker built together with some other people a few years ago: [this video] . It's incredibly inefficient compared to running it on a computer, but an amazing way to teach kids about this.
Recommends Tachyooon · 2026-01 · on “Learning to Play Tic-Tac-Toe with Jax”
The first time I heard of it was in this Matt Parker video where he helped do this with a school-sized group of kids [0]. An "AI player" made of matchboxes, run by schoolkids, is a fantastically fun idea. [0] [this video]
Cites notEvenOnce · 2018-06 · on “On Intelligence in Cells: The Case for Whole Cell Biology (2009) [pdf]”
The concept fits. Consider MENACE (Machine Educable Noughts And Crosses Engine). [this video] If cells operate in a similar fashion, where adaptation to externalities encodes itself into a durable surface of arbitrary pockets, then we have a recipe for inert systems exhibiting variable degrees of behavior, which is capable of evolving over time. This doesn't solve for sentience, but it does solve for expressive adaptation to fit into complex, hostile environments.
Cites jerf · 2025-07 · on “Solving a Childhood Mystery: How BASIC Games Learned to Win”
Matt Parker did a video about a physical implementation of MENACE as part of a museum display for a day: [this video]