Really neat stuff I hadn’t thought about before!
The technology hasn't changed at all since the 1992 film Sneakers with the blind character Whistler. https://youtu.be/GS3npSv8iuM?t=124
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTB5XhjbgZA
No affiliation, just one of my favourite videos.
Desktop mechanical adding machines continued to be used in offices all the way up to the 1970s when electronics finally replaced them.
You can easily make logical gates, automata or complete computers using pneumatic or hydraulic or electro-mechanical or purely mechanical devices.
These 4 kinds are still in use in certain applications, where their advantages remain important, but even more implementation techniques are possible, for instance with optical devices or with devices based on controlling ionic flows instead of electron flows or with devices based on controlling the kinetics of chemical reactions (i.e. an enzyme whose activity can be modulated, e.g. it can be inhibited, can be seen as the equivalent of a transistor or a relay, because it can allow or prevent the conversion between 2 chemical substances, i.e. the flow of matter between the 2 substances, like a relay can allow or prevent the flow of electrical current). The latter 2 kinds of devices are exemplified by the living beings.
This also looks like a real thing any further than a foot: https://youtube.com/shorts/JlYUZN7aw20?si=a_DspL_Ct2NLSyaO
https://www.engadget.com/this-oled-screen-can-fill-with-liqu...
https://youtube.com/watch?v=j_rErbhxNFM
They show a few other interesting actuators in first 20 seconds of video.