@neauoire @arcade since I don’t see it there: have you heard of zatocoding or similar notched card database systems? They were essentially a probabilistic database you query by sticking metal needles through holes and seeing what cards fall out. They are capable of basic logical operations (and, and not most simply, but then of course anything else) and things like sorting n cards in log(n) manipulations.

hackaday.com/2019/06/18/before