Remarks: Maze Walker

The first step in operationalizing this interpretation (that is, in creating a computational system that behaves in a way consistent with this interpretation) is defining what it means to occupy a location within the maze. The challenge is that the visual distinction between walls and floor is not represented in the program. [Figure] shows a closeup of the maze pattern, uses black squares to distinguish individual characters. The dark blue is the background of characters, but positions within the dark blue "corridor" are not themselves identified by unique character locations. Dark blue and light blue areas of the screen are distinguished at the level of individual pixels, but in the graphics mode that our BASIC program is drawing in, we can only access character-level blocks (8 by 8 pixel blocks) in video memory.

The first step in operationalizing this interpretation (that is, in creating a computational system that behaves in a way consistent with this interpretation) is defining what it means to occupy a location within the maze. The challenge is that the visual distinction between walls and floor is not represented in the program. [Figure] shows a closeup of the maze pattern, uses black squares to distinguish individual characters. The dark blue is the background of characters, but positions within the dark blue "corridor" are not themselves identified by unique character locations. Dark blue and light blue areas of the screen are distinguished at the level of individual pixels, but in the graphics mode that our BASIC program is drawing in, we can only access character-level blocks (8 by 8 pixel blocks) in video memory.

Thus, a particular screen location (such as the yellow highlighted location in [figure]), identifies one of the slanting characters (a wall segment), but does not identify which side of the wall (corridor segment) is currently occupied.

Thus, a particular screen location (such as the yellow highlighted location in [figure]), identifies one of the slanting characters (a wall segment), but does not identify which side of the wall (corridor segment) is currently occupied.