Mazes

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

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In the early 1950s the mathematician and engineer Claude Shannon designed a mechanical mouse that appeared to solve the same kind of maze a real mouse might be have been expected to navigate in one of Watson’s behavioral experiments. A foundational figure in modern computing, Shannon named the mouse Theseus, further reducing the mythological hero (and the sense of epic agency that story conveys), this time to a mere contraption guided by a mechanized system. Featured in both Time and Life in 1952, Theseus was not a sophisticated piece of artificial intelligence, however. It was simply a wooden mouse on wheels, with a bar magnet inside and copper wire whiskers. The true magic of this mouse resided underneath the maze, in a system of electronic relays that switched position when the mouse’s whiskers touched corresponding walls in the maze above. The first time through a maze, Theseus blundered randomly, propelled by its magnet, flipping the relays underneath the maze whenever it encountered a passage. The next time, Theseus would navigate the maze perfectly, thanks to the relays underneath, which recorded the correct route. This means of negotiating the twisting passages of Shannon’s maze was not mere novelty. As Time explained in 1952, Theseus was “useful in studying telephone switching systems, which are very like labyrinths.” Indeed, George Dyson argues that Theseus inspired the RAND Corporation engineer Paul Baran’s “adaptive message block switching” — the precursor to what is now known as packet switching, the protocol that defines the way data flows on the Internet (150).

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In the early 1950s the mathematician and engineer Claude Shannon designed a mechanical mouse that appeared to solve the same kind of maze a real mouse might be have been expected to navigate in one of Watson’s behavioral experiments. A foundational figure in modern computing, Shannon named the mouse Theseus, further reducing the mythological hero (and the sense of epic agency that story conveys), this time to a mere contraption guided by a mechanized system. Featured in both ''Time'' and ''Life'' in 1952, Theseus was not a sophisticated piece of artificial intelligence, however. It was simply a wooden mouse on wheels, with a bar magnet inside and copper wire whiskers. The true magic of this mouse resided underneath the maze, in a system of electronic relays that switched position when the mouse’s whiskers touched corresponding walls in the maze above. The first time through a maze, Theseus blundered randomly, propelled by its magnet, flipping the relays underneath the maze whenever it encountered a passage. The next time, Theseus would navigate the maze perfectly, thanks to the relays underneath, which recorded the correct route. This means of negotiating the twisting passages of Shannon’s maze was not mere novelty. As ''Time'' explained in 1952, Theseus was “useful in studying telephone switching systems, which are very like labyrinths.” Indeed, George Dyson argues that Theseus inspired the RAND Corporation engineer Paul Baran’s “adaptive message block switching” — the precursor to what is now known as packet switching, the protocol that defines the way data flows on the Internet (150).

Aside from its significance to network computing, Theseus serves as a vivid example of an early connection between mazes and computers. Furthermore, Theseus shares a procedural resonance with 10 PRINT. Theseus “learned” through repetition the fundamental process that draws the 10 PRINT maze. And like a computer program, the mouse in Shannon’s maze was only the surface level signifier of much deeper processes. Theseus in fact was dumb, inert. The “brain” of Theseus lay in the relays hidden underneath the surface of the maze, much in the same way the on-screen design of 10 PRINT is generated by an piece of code, initially not very clear, which depends upon an invisible, low-level call to generate pseudo-random numbers.

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 ==== Claude Shannon's Theseus ====
-In the early 1950s the mathematician and engineer Claude Shannon designed a mechanical mouse that appeared to solve the same kind of maze a real mouse might be have been expected to navigate in one of Watson’s behavioral experiments. A foundational figure in modern computing, Shannon named the mouse Theseus, further reducing the mythological hero (and the sense of epic agency that story conveys), this time to a mere contraption guided by a mechanized system. Featured in both Time and Life in 1952, Theseus was not a sophisticated piece of artificial intelligence, however. It was simply a wooden mouse on wheels, with a bar magnet inside and copper wire whiskers. The true magic of this mouse resided underneath the maze, in a system of electronic relays that switched position when the mouse’s whiskers touched corresponding walls in the maze above. The first time through a maze, Theseus blundered randomly, propelled by its magnet, flipping the relays  underneath the maze whenever it encountered a passage. The next time, Theseus  would navigate the maze perfectly, thanks to the relays underneath, which   recorded the correct route. This means of negotiating the twisting passages of  Shannon’s maze was not mere novelty. As Time explained in 1952, Theseus was  “useful in studying telephone switching systems, which are very like  labyrinths.” Indeed, George Dyson argues that Theseus inspired the RAND  Corporation engineer Paul Baran’s “adaptive message block switching” — the  precursor to what is now known as packet switching, the protocol that defines  the way data flows on the Internet (150).
+In the early 1950s the mathematician and engineer Claude Shannon designed a mechanical mouse that appeared to solve the same kind of maze a real mouse might be have been expected to navigate in one of Watson’s behavioral experiments. A foundational figure in modern computing, Shannon named the mouse Theseus, further reducing the mythological hero (and the sense of epic agency that story conveys), this time to a mere contraption guided by a mechanized system. Featured in both ''Time'' and ''Life'' in 1952, Theseus was not a sophisticated piece of artificial intelligence, however. It was simply a wooden mouse on wheels, with a bar magnet inside and copper wire whiskers. The true magic of this mouse resided underneath the maze, in a system of electronic relays that switched position when the mouse’s whiskers touched corresponding walls in the maze above. The first time through a maze, Theseus blundered randomly, propelled by its magnet, flipping the relays  underneath the maze whenever it encountered a passage. The next time, Theseus  would navigate the maze perfectly, thanks to the relays underneath, which   recorded the correct route. This means of negotiating the twisting passages of  Shannon’s maze was not mere novelty. As ''Time'' explained in 1952, Theseus was  “useful in studying telephone switching systems, which are very like  labyrinths.” Indeed, George Dyson argues that Theseus inspired the RAND  Corporation engineer Paul Baran’s “adaptive message block switching” — the  precursor to what is now known as packet switching, the protocol that defines  the way data flows on the Internet (150).
 Aside from its significance to network computing, Theseus serves as a vivid example of an early connection between mazes and computers. Furthermore, Theseus shares a procedural resonance with 10 PRINT. Theseus “learned” through repetition the fundamental process that draws the 10 PRINT maze. And like a computer program, the mouse in Shannon’s maze was only the surface level signifier of much deeper processes. Theseus in fact was dumb, inert. The “brain” of Theseus lay in the relays hidden underneath the surface of the maze, much in the same way the on-screen design of 10 PRINT is generated by an piece of code, initially not very clear, which depends upon an invisible, low-level call to generate pseudo-random numbers.