Making Money Flow: The MONIAC
Why Hacker News recommends it
Brought up as a charming example of analog and liquid computers simulating a national economy.
What it is
A short demonstration of the MONIAC, Bill Phillips' hydro-mechanical economic computer, at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand museum. It shows how water flows model an economy's money flows.
Recommended by 1 HN commenters across 1 different months, 2020 to 2022.
What Hacker News said
Recommends pseudolus · 2022-06 · on “Physicists are building neural networks out of vibrations, voltages and lasers”
I believe one of the earliest applications incorporating this line of thought was MONIAC, the Monetary National Income Analogue Computer, which used water levels to model the economy [0]. There's a short youtube documentary on its history and operation. [1] [0] [LINK] [1] [this video] [this video] (shows operation of MONIAC)
Cites basicplus2 · 2020-05 · on “The Vintage Beauty of Soviet Control Rooms (2018)”
And of course its always worth mentioning the MONIAC.. (Monetary National Income Analogue Computer) also known as the Phillips Hydraulic Computer [LINK] [this video]
Cites copperwater69 · 2022-02 · on “A brief history of liquid computers (2019)”
There was a neat liquid computer called the MONIAC used to model the national economic processes of the UK. Here's a video: [this video] Edit: Oh it was mentioned in the paper!
Cites Nition · 2022-06 · on “Show HN: A central bank simulator game with a realistic economic model”
This is exactly why MONIAC[0][1] was created in 1949. Not a real computer exactly - it simulates the entire system with water flow. [0] [LINK] [1] [this video]
Cites robocat · 2022-11 · on “Quantum winter is coming”
Here’s an analogue computer called the MONIAC from ~1949 that calculates monetary flow in an economy: [LINK] with a fairly naff video of it operating but captures the essence: [this video] I like the COMPAQ branding added to it!