Department of Computer Science: MSc Thesis Presentations

Computability in Minecraft

Author: Sami Kautto
Supervisor: Pekka Orponen

Abstract: Due to its popularity and modifiability, Minecraft has attracted interest in academia, including in the field of computer science. This work shows that the fundamental computational model of Turing machines can be implemented in Minecraft, and presents a tool for generating Minecraft Turing machines from textual descriptions. To achieve this, a Turing machine design for Minecraft was developed and a corresponding server plugin for Minecraft programmed. The plugin reads a text file containing Turing machine instructions and generates the Minecraft machine based on them. In addition, a software tool with a graphical user interface was produced for more convenient creation of the machine description text files.