Mazes

Indeed, the computer has provided new ways of experiencing mazes. In particular, the experience of the maze shifts with the different perspectives commonly associated with video games: first-person, second-person, and third-person. Each entails a different form of embodiment, a different form of subjectivity, and a different perception of space. Experiencing a maze one corridor at a time from a first-person point of view is markedly different from experiencing the same maze through the "you" of a text adventure or through a third-person omniscient or overarching view. By considering how 10 PRINT relates to computer mazes of these types in games, it is possible to understand more about what 10 PRINT's maze means, and what makes this program inviting to try out and to modify.

Indeed, the computer has provided new ways of experiencing mazes. In particular, the experience of the maze shifts with the different perspectives commonly associated with video games: first-person, second-person, and third-person. Each entails a different form of embodiment, a different form of subjectivity, and a different perception of space. Experiencing a maze one corridor at a time from a first-person point of view is markedly different from experiencing the same maze through the "you" of a text adventure or through a third-person omniscient or overarching view. By considering how 10 PRINT relates to computer mazes of these types in games, it is possible to understand more about what 10 PRINT's maze means, and what makes this program inviting to try out and to modify.

The terms "maze" and "labyrinth" are generally synonyms in colloquial English, and indeed, many Western languages only have one word to designate the concept of a path-structure. Despite this common usage, over the past century many scholars and historians have argued over the distinction between these two terms. In this proposed distinction, "labyrinth" refers to only to single-path (unicursal) structures, while "maze" refers only to branching-path (multicursal) structures.

The terms "maze" and "labyrinth" are generally synonyms in colloquial English, and indeed, many Western languages only have one word to designate the concept of a path-structure. Despite this common usage, over the past century many scholars and historians have argued over the distinction between these two terms. In this proposed distinction, "labyrinth" refers to only to single-path (unicursal) structures, while "maze" refers only to branching-path (multicursal) structures.

Nevertheless, it is important to clearly distinguish between unicursal and multicursal path-structures, as these often arise in different cultural contexts, have different uses, and produce different experiences while being used. We term these two types the "unicursal maze" (offering a single path along which walkers proceed, never making a choice about where to turn) and the "multicursal maze" (which invites wrong turns, has dead ends, and may even have multiple paths to the exit or center).

Nevertheless, it is important to clearly distinguish between unicursal and multicursal path-structures, as these often arise in different cultural contexts, have different uses, and produce different experiences while being used. We term these two types the "unicursal maze" (offering a single path along which walkers proceed, never making a choice about where to turn) and the "multicursal maze" (which invites wrong turns, has dead ends, and may even have multiple paths to the exit or center).

=== What is a Maze? ===

=== What is a Maze? ===

A material, architectural structure is necessarially of finite size. There is no limit to how long 10 PRINT can be left running, however. Can a boundless structure be a maze? There is a very early warrant that it can, found in one of the example sentences from the ''Oxford English Dictionary'': "1542 H. BRINKELOW Lamentacion sig. Cviii, Leadyng them in an endlesse Maze of dyrtye tradicyons and folish ceremonyes." As an endless maze, 10 PRINT tantalizes viewers, but offers no set path or solution, which is quite in keeping with the definition of "maze" given by ''Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary'' (1913): "a confusing and baffling network, as of paths or passages; an intricacy; a labyrinth."

A material, architectural structure is necessarially of finite size. There is no limit to how long 10 PRINT can be left running, however. Can a boundless structure be a maze? There is a very early warrant that it can, found in one of the example sentences from the ''Oxford English Dictionary'': "1542 H. BRINKELOW Lamentacion sig. Cviii, Leadyng them in an endlesse Maze of dyrtye tradicyons and folish ceremonyes." As an endless maze, 10 PRINT tantalizes viewers, but offers no set path or solution, which is quite in keeping with the definition of "maze" given by ''Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary'' (1913): "a confusing and baffling network, as of paths or passages; an intricacy; a labyrinth."

For children over the centuries, unicursal hedge and turf mazes have offered curling lanes for running but less puzzling pleasures than the seemingly endless grounds for playing hide-and-seek out of doors in multicursal mazes. For in multicursal mazes, which are solvable mazes, the solution is complicated by the possibility of making wrong choices at key nodes where directional choices are required. Instead of following the unicursal maze’s predetermined path, walkers in a multicursal maze risk getting lost on their way. They are challenged to find the path that reaches the exit. Once that path is known, though, the one correct path can be seen as a unicursal maze that is fraught by the possibility of wrong turns.

For children over the centuries, unicursal hedge and turf mazes have offered curling lanes for running but less puzzling pleasures than the seemingly endless grounds for playing hide-and-seek out of doors in multicursal mazes. For in multicursal mazes, which are solvable mazes, the solution is complicated by the possibility of making wrong choices at key nodes where directional choices are required. Instead of following the unicursal maze’s predetermined path, walkers in a multicursal maze risk getting lost on their way. They are challenged to find the path that reaches the exit. Once that path is known, though, the one correct path can be seen as a unicursal maze that is fraught by the possibility of wrong turns.

The Cretan Labyrinth in Knossos, in which Theseus encountered the Minotaur, is the most famous ancient maze, one which deeply influenced cultural perceptions of the maze into the 1980s, the era of 10 PRINT. That mythical maze held the part-man, part-bull Minotaur, the child of Pasiphae’s cursed by Poseidon with an unnatural bovine lust. This early maze, like a basement or attic in more recent folklore, was the hiding place for a defective, dangerous family member, a hybrid horror. Theseus arrived at Crete and won the affection of Ariadne, the king's daughter, who offered him a means of returning from the labyrinth after he entered it to defeat the Minotaur. She suggested he tie a string to the entrance and unravel it as he proceeds through the maze so that he could follow it back to the entrance. Thanks to Ariadne's thread, Theseus successfully made his way through the maze, slew the Minotaur, and escaped. The victorious Greek hero took Ariadne with him, only to abandon her (in most tellings of the legend) on the island of Naxos.

The Cretan Labyrinth in Knossos, in which Theseus encountered the Minotaur, is the most famous ancient maze, one which deeply influenced cultural perceptions of the maze into the 1980s, the era of 10 PRINT. That mythical maze held the part-man, part-bull Minotaur, the child of Pasiphae’s cursed by Poseidon with an unnatural bovine lust. This early maze, like a basement or attic in more recent folklore, was the hiding place for a defective, dangerous family member, a hybrid horror. Theseus arrived at Crete and won the affection of Ariadne, the king's daughter, who offered him a means of returning from the labyrinth after he entered it to defeat the Minotaur. She suggested he tie a string to the entrance and unravel it as he proceeds through the maze so that he could follow it back to the entrance. Thanks to Ariadne's thread, Theseus successfully made his way through the maze, slew the Minotaur, and escaped. The victorious Greek hero took Ariadne with him, only to abandon her (in most tellings of the legend) on the island of Naxos.

In its depictions, the Cretan maze is formalized and re-produced not as an unknown space but as Theseus’ path through it. This transformation from multicursal and unknowable passageway to marked and bounded pathway reflects the transformation that comes in the mastery of any system, from challenging, mysterious, threatening, and deadly to easy, known, mapped, and tamed. It also illustrates how some puzzles have sequential solutions: it was not enough for Theseus to kill the Minotaur; he had to find an exit from the labyrinth afterwards. Finally, therefore, this original labyrinthine myth reflects the reality of many puzzles: when the solution is known, the puzzle seems simpler if not trivial. The morphing of the maze from complex to simple (or at least understandable) is part of the Commodore 64 user's ideal encounter with 10 PRINT, and it is what allows this puzzle to lead on to other explorations and different routes.

In its depictions, the Cretan maze is formalized and re-produced not as an unknown space but as Theseus’ path through it. This transformation from multicursal and unknowable passageway to marked and bounded pathway reflects the transformation that comes in the mastery of any system, from challenging, mysterious, threatening, and deadly to easy, known, mapped, and tamed. It also illustrates how some puzzles have sequential solutions: it was not enough for Theseus to kill the Minotaur; he had to find an exit from the labyrinth afterwards. Finally, therefore, this original labyrinthine myth reflects the reality of many puzzles: when the solution is known, the puzzle seems simpler if not trivial. The morphing of the maze from complex to simple (or at least understandable) is part of the Commodore 64 user's ideal encounter with 10 PRINT, and it is what allows this puzzle to lead on to other explorations and different routes.

But John B. Watson used maze environments for quite different purposes. He sought to determine whether rats could make their way through a maze under different conditions. Watson continued his work by systematically blinding rats and maiming them in other ways to deprive them of different senses after they had learned their way through a maze. His work attracted public attention, and he was denounced in a ''New York Times'' editorial as a torturer. Watson, however, was sure of his behavioral science agenda and that the same principles that applied to rats applied to people. By 1916 he had moved on to experiments with infants. In a 1920 experiment that became famous he conditioned one baby, "Little Albert," to fear a furry white rat and furry white things in general. The use of mazes in experiments with rats increased greatly during the 1920s. We now associate behaviorism, the perspective that all animal and human actions are behaviors, mainly with another American scientist, B. F. Skinner. Skinner's operant conditioning chamber, also known as the Skinner box, is another famous environment for laboratory animals that was built decades after Watson's mazes. While Skinner's name is better known today, Watson's maze remains emblematic -- and similar environments are still used for experiments today.

But John B. Watson used maze environments for quite different purposes. He sought to determine whether rats could make their way through a maze under different conditions. Watson continued his work by systematically blinding rats and maiming them in other ways to deprive them of different senses after they had learned their way through a maze. His work attracted public attention, and he was denounced in a ''New York Times'' editorial as a torturer. Watson, however, was sure of his behavioral science agenda and that the same principles that applied to rats applied to people. By 1916 he had moved on to experiments with infants. In a 1920 experiment that became famous he conditioned one baby, "Little Albert," to fear a furry white rat and furry white things in general. The use of mazes in experiments with rats increased greatly during the 1920s. We now associate behaviorism, the perspective that all animal and human actions are behaviors, mainly with another American scientist, B. F. Skinner. Skinner's operant conditioning chamber, also known as the Skinner box, is another famous environment for laboratory animals that was built decades after Watson's mazes. While Skinner's name is better known today, Watson's maze remains emblematic -- and similar environments are still used for experiments today.

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 like an inspired Daedalus, the maze becomes metanymic of a challenge to intelligence; not a romantic, riddling intelligence, but a classically conditioned, animal kind. 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 like an inspired Daedalus, the maze becomes metanymic of a challenge to intelligence; not a romantic, riddling intelligence, but a classically conditioned, animal kind. 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.

But who is the user at the interface of 10 Print, the scientist or the rodent? When 10 PRINT runs, it relentlessly provides a maze, but it does not trap the user like a rat. Instead, given the top-down view and the lack of a user-controlled maze walker, the computer presents the programmer with the point of view of the maze designer, offering in a sense to collaborate with the user in creating a new design. As novice programmers can attest, however, making one’s way through the introductory steps of acquiring the syntax and structures can only pursue that whiff of cheese. In this way, 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 the role of the traveler slaying the beast to a hungry little mouse. This dehumanization continues in the next development as the mouse becomes mechanized.

But who is the user at the interface of 10 Print, the scientist or the rodent? When 10 PRINT runs, it relentlessly provides a maze, but it does not trap the user like a rat. Instead, given the top-down view and the lack of a user-controlled maze walker, the computer presents the programmer with the point of view of the maze designer, offering in a sense to collaborate with the user in creating a new design. As novice programmers can attest, however, making one’s way through the introductory steps of acquiring the syntax and structures can only pursue that whiff of cheese. In this way, 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 the role of the traveler slaying the beast to a hungry little mouse. This dehumanization continues in the next development as the mouse becomes mechanized.

==== Claude Shannon's Theseus ====

==== Claude Shannon's Theseus ====

Dixon, Steve. 2007. Digital Performance. A History of New Media in Theater, Dance, Performance Art, and Installation. Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press.

Dixon, Steve. 2007. Digital Performance. A History of New Media in Theater, Dance, Performance Art, and Installation. Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press.

Dyson, George. Darwin among the Machines: The Evolution of Global Intelligence. Da Capo Press, 1998.

Dyson, George. Darwin among the Machines: The Evolution of Global Intelligence. Da Capo Press, 1998.

Latham, Aaron. 1981. Video Games Star War. The New York Times, October 25, Late City Final edition, sec. 6.

Latham, Aaron. 1981. Video Games Star War. The New York Times, October 25, Late City Final edition, sec. 6.

Matthews, William Henry. 1922. Mazes and Labyrinths: A General Account of Their History and Developments (New York : Longmans, Green)

Matthews, William Henry. 1922. Mazes and Labyrinths: A General Account of Their History and Developments (New York : Longmans, Green)

Oxford English Dictionary.

Oxford English Dictionary.

Saward, Jeff. 2009. Chartres Labyrinth FAQs. Chartres Labyrinth FAQs. August. http://www.labyrinthos.net/chartresfaq.html

Saward, Jeff. 2009. Chartres Labyrinth FAQs. Chartres Labyrinth FAQs. August. http://www.labyrinthos.net/chartresfaq.html