I didn't read the article (I'm so lazy) but yeah I could imagine
  it wouldn't be easy, although I *think* you can substitute a
  series of NANDs or NORs for an XOR... but my knowledge is
  limited to some wikipedia research I did like two years ago and
  mostly forgot - I was researching the nature of memory and
  trying to puzzle it out and ended up sidetracked for months on
  logic circuits 'til I could figure out which analogized best to
  different types of human memory.