No, you don't have to do any conversion to perform what you refer to as "useful operations". Remember these functions are already equivalent to the boolean functions, there is simply more states. That means you can do everything you can with 2 states, plus more.
It is quite simple to perform the exact equivalent of boolean:
Boolean example:
State 1 AND State 0 = State 0
16 state example:
State 15 AND State 0 = State 0
Actually any state would work for an and gate, however using the max state is particularly useful as boolean 1 is a max state and so the complement of the max state is the min state which also holds true in any number of states in any logic. So in 16 state, NOT 15 = 0. In 2 state, NOT 1 = 0.
The difference in the systems is that adding more states allows more accurate representation of real world concepts where everything is not "TRUE" or "FALSE" while still allowing you to use both "TRUE" and "FALSE". By no means does adding states somehow limit what you can do over systems with less states. The exact same computational power is there, again with the addition of states representing degrees of truth.
EDIT: I didn't address you concern with the word computer in my last post. I used the word computer in reference to a general purpose computer or ALU as was provided in context there. No you do not need one of these devices to perform the example, you connect a comparator to the chest to pull the signal, then place a repeater at the level you want to unload at as your decoder to binary (or wire it so that the level would trigger or subtract from it with another comparator to only output from there when the signal surpasses the threshold and so on), connect that to an inverter which powers the hopper that empties the chest. The point there was that for any application in which a general purpose computer can be made to do, there is always the ability to do it with a specialized circuit which would be more compact and faster. I was simply acknowledging this fact.
It is quite simple to perform the exact equivalent of boolean:
Boolean example:
State 1 AND State 0 = State 0
16 state example:
State 15 AND State 0 = State 0
Actually any state would work for an and gate, however using the max state is particularly useful as boolean 1 is a max state and so the complement of the max state is the min state which also holds true in any number of states in any logic. So in 16 state, NOT 15 = 0. In 2 state, NOT 1 = 0.
The difference in the systems is that adding more states allows more accurate representation of real world concepts where everything is not "TRUE" or "FALSE" while still allowing you to use both "TRUE" and "FALSE". By no means does adding states somehow limit what you can do over systems with less states. The exact same computational power is there, again with the addition of states representing degrees of truth.
EDIT: I didn't address you concern with the word computer in my last post. I used the word computer in reference to a general purpose computer or ALU as was provided in context there. No you do not need one of these devices to perform the example, you connect a comparator to the chest to pull the signal, then place a repeater at the level you want to unload at as your decoder to binary (or wire it so that the level would trigger or subtract from it with another comparator to only output from there when the signal surpasses the threshold and so on), connect that to an inverter which powers the hopper that empties the chest. The point there was that for any application in which a general purpose computer can be made to do, there is always the ability to do it with a specialized circuit which would be more compact and faster. I was simply acknowledging this fact.