[ISEA98] Paper: Roman Verostko – The Manchester Illuminated Universal Turing Machine

Abstract

A hard copy, code driven, series of “Illuminated Universal Turing Machines” has been created for ISEA98 and can be seen in the Department of Fine Arts. This project commemorates the contributions of Alan Turing to the Digital Arts Revolution

REVOLUTION / RATIONALE.
The concept underlying “U” drives the gating logic of all general computers. Alan Turing’s concept is embedded in millions of machines throughout the world. These machines arc revolutionizing virtually every field of human endeavour throughout the arts and sciences as well as in everyday life in the world today. The celebration of this machine, in a code generated fine art edition, identifies the very core of the revolution shaping today’s culture.
As an artist who has worked for several years with illuminated versions of this text Roman views Manchester, at this historical moment, as a key player in the revolution that has engulfed us. The tradition of the illuminated manuscript in medieval art is deeply tied to Manchester where stylistic trends underwent a revolution in the 9th century. For several reasons then, Manchester, the site where the pioneer work on hard-wired Universal Turing Machines was done, emerges as the most appropriate site for issuing this first serial edition of an “Illuminated Universal Turing Machine”.
Revolutionary Procedure
The artistic procedure employs a revolutionary post-mechanical form-generation method which, by analogy to biological process, may be viewed as “epigenetic”. The software (code), created by the artist, behaves as genotype capable of generating a distinctive “family of forms” within any given set of parameters. The hyperspace of all possible forms, based on the specific parameter settings for this Manchester edition, is infinitely “vast”.
Each member of the Manchester series includes a unique pen-drawn form materialized from a vast family of possible forms. The pen-drawn form for each member of the edition is pen plotted using the multi-pen plotters in Roman’s “Digital Scriptorium” and driven with his original software. Every single line in the entire edition is a unique pen drawn stroke. Each finished work, illuminated with an original “code generated” form is signed and identified with its Manchester serial number. Selection of materials, plotting procedures and the use of gold leaf conspire to achieve a valued object to be treasured in its own right.
WHAT IS A UNIVERSAL TURING MACHINE?
the gating logic for circuit boards in all general computers descends from a logical procedure known as a Universal Turing Machine (UTM). The logic for this algorithm by Alan Turing (1912-54) was written in 1936 and published in 1937 in the Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society. This paper, “On computable numbers, with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem”, planted the seminal idea, the meme, for all general computers. The term “Turing machine” appeared in print for the first time in the Journal of Symbolic Logic in Alonzo Church’s review of the Turing paper.
How it works: Turing’s algorithmic procedure for a universal problem solver was modeled on what human beings could actually do. A “computer”, in 1936, was understood to be a human who performed computation. Turing reduced his procedure to simple atomic steps. Each step could be performed mechanically by a human viewing one square at a time on a tape. The tape could move one step at a time, left or right. At each step, the guiding algorithm identified a simple operation: a change of symbol on the tape or no change, a move left one square, right one square, or stop. A “UTM” guiding the operation could perform any logical procedure whatsoever given a compat-ible description of the procedure. Because a UTM provided a deterministic mechanical procedure, the operation could be handed over to a machine. Within a decade a mechanical UTM.
operating on a stored-program became a reality and has been followed with such vigorous growth that a desktop general computer that embodies the underlying logic of a UTM is commonplace today.
ILLUMINATED VERSION OF THE ALGORITHM
The version Roman illuminates for the Manchester ISEA is quoted from Roger Penrose’ “The Emperor’s New Mind” (Chapter 2) and consists of 5,495 binary digits. These digits represent an algorithm, in expanded binary, for a Universal Turing Machine. In the tradition of illuminated sacred texts this algorithm is presented as a valued authoritative text of our own times. The form enhancements that celebrate the value of the text are generated with the artist’s code that requires the logic of “U” for its execution, thus being a form of “Turing on Turing”! This proposal may be viewed in relation to “U” as a “Self Portrait” that Roman has created and maintains at his web site.

Note that this site also includes a program that simulates two very simple Turing Machines (+1 and *2). This program was made some years ago to demonstrate the step by step operation of a Turing Machine. The file is tmachine.exe and operates in a DOS environment.
Internet Sites
Selected web sites with information on Turing Machines (some sites have Turing Machine Simulators available): [urls outdated]

REFERENCE:
For further discussion see Roman’s version of a Universal Turing Machine as a “Self Portrait” on the web. Since every PC is a Universal Turing Machine then the algorithm for a “U” presented by a PC becomes a “Self Portrait” of that PC.
For a collection of essays and further reference both general and technical see “The Universal Turing Machine: A Half-Century Survey”, Edited by Rolf Herken. Springer Verlag 1995, Wien, NY.
Roger Penrose, “THE EMPEROR’S NEW MIND: concerning computers, minds and the laws of physics” (Oxford University Press, 1989). Chapter two, “Algorithms and Turing machines” provides a detailed presentation of Turing machine logic including step by step procedures for structuring simple machines such as “+1”.
PRECURSOR MEMES FROM GEORGE BOOLE (1815-64)
PROPOSITION I. To deduce the laws of the symbols of Logic from a consideration of those operations of the mind which are implied in the strict use of language as an instrument of reasoning . .. The literal symbols of Logic are universally subject to the law whose expression is X^2.X. Of the symbols of Number there are two only, 0 and 1, which satisfy this law.
PROPOSITION IV. That axiom of metaphysicians which is termed the principle of contradiction, and which affirms that it is impossible for any being to possess a quality, and at the same time not to possess it, is a consequence of the fundamental law of thought, whose expression is X^2.X.
Quoted from George Boole in An investigation of THE LAWS OF THOUGHT . . . (Macmillan 1854)

  • Roman Verostko, USA, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Executive Director ISEA93 (FISEA’93)       verostko.com [url updated 080715]