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Long ago (I'm thinking early 80s) in Scientific American, I recall a story about the implementation of a computer(?) in a giant train switching yard. That one, I can't find. Though the story of Apraphul ( http://robert.surton.net/cs160/apraphulian.pdf ) also points to the "nothing magical about silicon and electricity".

There are lots of ways to do computation. DNA for example. http://www.nature.com/news/2000/000113/full/news000113-10.ht...

Its just that going from the accidentally Turing complete and physical implementations of logic gates to the simulation hypothesis was a sudden shift in the narrative I was making for myself while reading the slides.

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The Sci Am article was a Computer Recreations column, probably by A.K. Dewdney.

After some digging, it is "Mathematical Recreations: A Subway Named Turing", Scientific American (September): 104,106-107 by Ian Steward which can be read at http://dev.whydomath.org/Reading_Room_Material/ian_stewart/C... (the key memory points that confirms it is the conversational mode and the passage "And I swear there's a sign just along the tunnel that reads 'flip-flop 7743A/91.'"

Though A.K. Dewdney did write on a similar topic - Dewdney, A. K. 1987. Algopuzzles: wherein trains of thought follow algorithmic tracks to solutions. Scientific American 256(6):128–130.

and http://bit-player.org/wp-content/extras/bph-publications/AmS... is a some other interesting puzzles on the subject.