Mazes
From Maze
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| − | 10 PRINT produces a pattern that the manual calls a maze. Of course, it does not have to use the word maze. It could call it the randomly alternating pattern of diagonal lines. Still, while that description matches the output of the program, it does not capture the magical power of the program to create, out of a simple alternation, a visual pattern recognizable as a maze. The amazing turn of this program is the clever and concise operation by which it produces a maze seemingly by the flip of a coin. | + | 10 PRINT produces a pattern that the manual calls a maze. Of course, the book does not have to use the word maze. It could call it "the randomly alternating pattern of diagonal lines." Still, while such a description might match the output of the program, it does not capture the magical power of the program to create, out of a simple alternation, a visual pattern recognizable as a maze. The amazing turn of this program is the clever and concise operation by which it produces a maze seemingly by the flip of a coin. |
Mazes have an iconic place in the world of early computers and, of course, a much longer place in cultures around the world. They are heavily charged symbols that appear to call the viewer into entering their pathways either physically or visually. | Mazes have an iconic place in the world of early computers and, of course, a much longer place in cultures around the world. They are heavily charged symbols that appear to call the viewer into entering their pathways either physically or visually. | ||
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| + | This chapter examines the cultural resonances of mazes and the effects that has on the meaning of 10 PRINT.... | ||
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[[Category:Mazes]] | [[Category:Mazes]] | ||
| − | Arguably one of the most intriguing characteristics of 10-Print is the maze-like pattern it produces. Or is this output actually a maze? The history of mazes, particularly in Western culture, does not answer that question easily. Nor does the attempt to call this a maze as distinct from a labyrinth, though the latter term seems to be sedimenting with the meaning of elaborate and twisting unicursal passageway. Calling this pattern "maze-like" raises complexities: it cannot be traversed (though Michael Mateas' program traverses it), it has no ending (though stopping the program terminates the maze drawing), it was not designed as a puzzle (though mazes are not necessarily solvable). | + | Arguably one of the most intriguing characteristics of 10-Print is the maze-like pattern it produces. Or is this output actually a maze? The history of mazes, particularly in Western culture, does not answer that question easily. Nor does the attempt to call this a maze as distinct from a labyrinth, though the latter term seems to be sedimenting with the meaning of elaborate and twisting unicursal passageway. |
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| + | Calling this pattern "maze-like" is to present a paradox: it cannot be traversed (though Michael Mateas' program traverses it), it has no ending (though stopping the program terminates the maze drawing), it was not designed as a puzzle (though mazes are not necessarily solvable). | ||
Nonetheless, calling this program something other than a maze generator, for example, a random-line-pattern generator, quickly drains it of at least a portion of its mystique. Mazes are bewildering puzzles, places of terror, amusements, challenges, organizing structures, and pleasing patterns. So what does it mean for a home computer in the early 1980s to display a maze in the way the 10 PRINT program does? Computers could and did display many other things. What did the maze, specifically, signify and connote? This chapter examines the role the concept of "maze" plays in making this one line program so tantalizing. | Nonetheless, calling this program something other than a maze generator, for example, a random-line-pattern generator, quickly drains it of at least a portion of its mystique. Mazes are bewildering puzzles, places of terror, amusements, challenges, organizing structures, and pleasing patterns. So what does it mean for a home computer in the early 1980s to display a maze in the way the 10 PRINT program does? Computers could and did display many other things. What did the maze, specifically, signify and connote? This chapter examines the role the concept of "maze" plays in making this one line program so tantalizing. | ||
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Nothing in these definitions requires mazes to have a solutions. | Nothing in these definitions requires mazes to have a solutions. | ||
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| + | In William Henry Mathew's definitive ''Mazes and Labyrinths,'' he establishes requirements for mazes. First, he limits himself to "works of artifice" as opposed to "'labyrinths' of nature, such as forests, caverns, and so forth" since those are only metaphorically related. Secondly, he requires "an element of purposefulness in the design" (182). Thirdly, he requires " a certain degree of complexity" (183). Finally he requires "communication" between the component parts and between the "interior and exterior" (183). 10-Print matches this criteria, though at times only to a limited degree. Certainly it is complex and a work of artifice. However, the notion of "purposefulness of design" raises one of the most important differences. 10-Print is not so captivating because of some Daedalus who created the outputs pattern but rather because it has the power the generate mazes without Daedalus. | ||
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Certainly all of the definitions of maze attend the perception of this particular program, but these definitions demonstrate that the output does qualify as a maze. But what if one wanted to insist on the strictest possible view of the constructed puzzle-maze with a single solution, denying that the output of this program is a maze at every moment? Even then, what could the output possibly suggest, what could it evoke in the viewer, if not the concept of the maze? 10 PRINT is a maze-generator, but even if there are some who deny this, they will have to grant that it is a program that is associated with and falls under the shroud of the myths of mazes and labyrinths. | Certainly all of the definitions of maze attend the perception of this particular program, but these definitions demonstrate that the output does qualify as a maze. But what if one wanted to insist on the strictest possible view of the constructed puzzle-maze with a single solution, denying that the output of this program is a maze at every moment? Even then, what could the output possibly suggest, what could it evoke in the viewer, if not the concept of the maze? 10 PRINT is a maze-generator, but even if there are some who deny this, they will have to grant that it is a program that is associated with and falls under the shroud of the myths of mazes and labyrinths. | ||
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