Week 8 Boozesort
BOOZESORT
by mr_puzzel
METRIC
Cost + Cycles * 5 + Area
REAGENTS
Booze (Variable)
Stabilized Fire x2
Stabilized Water
PRODUCT
Sorted Booze (Variable)
NOTES
This is a computation puzzle; your task is to take a variable alcohol-shaped input and output a 4-atom stick where the atoms are sorted in the order of fire>salt>water, from left to right.
Your metric is calculated from the worst of 81 cases. The input does not change over the course of one case.
Batching is permitted, but caching is not allowed: although the website will be calculate your score assuming no change to the input, your machine must solve to completion for any possible input stream, i.e. it should be able to handle a variable input that can change after every pull, as well as an output glyph that will accept changing products corresponding to those inputs in the order they are pulled (output A corresponds to input A, output B corresponds to input B, etc.).
If hosts think your solve uses batching, they reserve the right to score your solve against an input stream of their choosing, to obtain a more representative worst-case.
Output conditionals ARE allowed in this puzzle; you may drop any incorrect molecule of the same shape over the output.
mr_puzzel created a mod for this puzzle using the OMComputation framework (Discord link), both of which can be installed with the Quintessential mod loader. Consult the links for more info.
Edit: description has been updated to better describe what type of solution behavior is permitted.
... As a consequence, nearly anything can be chosen as the third essence for ternary-based computation systems, and so the information alchemist is now able to choose safer, almost-mundane materials for the computation substrate4.
Click to reveal pre-solve lore
For example, ternary systems utilizing Air typically use lamplight gas as their computation substrate.
Not only is this a commonly-available fuel, but the material is easily piped into the computation engine using the same plumbing that brightens the halls of the Houses.
Of course, the most popular choice for ternary systems is Water, as famously demonstrated in Melker Påhlson's (rather hectic) symposium presentation on the Teuling thesis.
The primary advantage of Water ternary systems is economical - most alcohols can function as the computation substrate, and alcohol (like lamplight gas) already has well-established infrastructure for both production and distribution.
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4It is interesting to note that the oldest-known calculating devices from over two-thousand years ago (see "Secrets of the Flidais Site" by K. Durrigan) operated by redirecting liquid-water through stone channels, and so performed their computations via the subtle manipulation of primal matter. In this sense, some argue that the arrival of cardinal-based ternary systems is a return to form.
...and the worst part *hic* the WOOORSHT part about all dis "computation" is, is, is the Houshes are
alllllll RUSHIN' to get their hands on it, sho they're buying up *burp* buying all the trashmulation
engines and all the gin, the GIN, and they're not even gonna drink it, the bashtards! no sir, inna machine it
goesh, so it can shpend allll day doin some calcurlation or other that even a little *hic* that even a
NOVICE accountant could finish inna minute, and then *belch* and then because they didn't spec it right,
it gets it wrong anyway, and so the accountant's got no job, the House ish shipping ore to some vapor-den
in the downriver, and *burp* and I'M shtuck payin' top-guilder for shtuff tha's weaker 'n pissClick to reveal post-solve lore
download: Weeklies2025_Boozesort.puzzle (where do i put this?)