MENACE: the pile of matchboxes which can learn
Stand-up Maths2 HN recommenders · 2018–2026
453K views · explainer · evergreen · Uploaded 2017-11-14
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.
HN cites it as a fun, tangible way to teach machine learning, including to kids.
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5 comments from Hacker News
The concept fits. Consider MENACE (Machine Educable Noughts And Crosses Engine). [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.
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. [VIDEO] The video description has additional links to resources: [LINK] [LINK]
Seems like this is what Matt Parker built together with some other people a few years ago: [VIDEO] . It's incredibly inefficient compared to running it on a computer, but an amazing way to teach kids about this.
Matt Parker did a video about a physical implementation of MENACE as part of a museum display for a day: [VIDEO]
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] [VIDEO]