[pshc]

Just dreaming over here, but if someone had the opportunity to rebuild a Factorio from the ground up, I bet they could design something massively scalable. Something based in cell automata, like how water flow works in Minecraft. Current cell state = f(prev cell state, neighboring cell states).

It would take some careful work to ensure that items didn't get duplicated or lost at junctions, and a back-pressure system for conveyor belt queues. Electrical signals would be transmitted at some speed limit.