Mazes
From Maze
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10 PRINT's output is a regular arrangement of "walls" in a grid -- akin to the arrangement of the stereotypical laboratory maze. Instead of suggesting that the computer is creating structures or drawings for pure amusement, the idea of the laboratory maze offers a concept that is more serious and scientific. It also brings in the idea of the experimenter -- indifferent to the struggles of the creatures lost in the maze, at least, and perhaps cruelly impairing those creatures -- and the subject of the experiment, trapped in a bewildering structure created by powers and for purposes beyond comprehension. | 10 PRINT's output is a regular arrangement of "walls" in a grid -- akin to the arrangement of the stereotypical laboratory maze. Instead of suggesting that the computer is creating structures or drawings for pure amusement, the idea of the laboratory maze offers a concept that is more serious and scientific. It also brings in the idea of the experimenter -- indifferent to the struggles of the creatures lost in the maze, at least, and perhaps cruelly impairing those creatures -- and the subject of the experiment, trapped in a bewildering structure created by powers and for purposes beyond comprehension. | ||
| − | When 10 PRINT runs, it relentlessly provides a maze, but it does not not trap the user in it like a rat. Instead, given the top-down view and the lack of a user-controlled maze walker, the computer may be offering to collaborate with the user in experimenting on virtual rats. This would be a different suggestion than the cinematic, literary, and cartoon representation of behavioral science mazes that encourage people to identify with the rat or mouse. In any case, amid the playful and religious connotations of the maze are those things the experimenter's maze hints at: That the computer is a scientific instrument, for instance, and that the recent history of science has certain dark corners. | + | When 10 PRINT runs, it relentlessly provides a maze, but it does not not trap the user in it like a rat. Instead, given the top-down view and the lack of a user-controlled maze walker, the computer may be offering to collaborate with the user in experimenting on virtual rats. This would be a different suggestion than the cinematic, literary, and cartoon representations of behavioral science mazes that encourage people to identify with the rat or mouse. In any case, amid the playful and religious connotations of the maze are those things the experimenter's maze hints at: That the computer is a scientific instrument, for instance, and that the recent history of science has certain dark corners. |
=== Claude Shannon's Theseus === | === Claude Shannon's Theseus === | ||
