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Universal Turing Machine @universalturing.bsky.social · 5d

Monthly newsletter out today. Tips, reminders and all things UTM. If anyone wants a copy and isn't on the list: email [email protected]

Universal Turing Machine @universalturing.bsky.social · 9d

'Large language models couldn’t come close to knowing how life had been for me. They configured rounded characters who developed in arcs whereas time travel disintegrated the self, always had done.' 2023, 56

UTM – UTM

universalturingmachine.co.uk

Universal Turing Machine @universalturing.bsky.social · 10d

'I was from the last generation of true believers in the written word, both as a medium for self-expression and an act of resistance. The page was a place where time stopped. What
was left? What was written.' 2023, 56

universalturingmachine.co.uk/utm/

UTM – UTM

universalturingmachine.co.uk

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Universal Turing Machine @universalturing.bsky.social · 12d

'The Universal Turing Machine should pass the Turing Test, as a book that was convincingly human. Difficult, imperfect, awkward. Write what you know.' 2023, 56

UTM – UTM

universalturingmachine.co.uk

Universal Turing Machine @universalturing.bsky.social · 15d

'In The Universal Turing Machine questions would be raised and questions answered, not always in that order. If there was a risk of confusion, there was the reward of authenticity: a narrative that progressed one thing after another wasn’t true to life. Not enough things. Not mixed up enough.' 2023

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Reposted by Universal Turing Machine

Jonathan Campion @jonathancampion.com · 17d

Really enjoyed this piece about @richbeard.bsky.social's new memoir project. Quite tempted to give The Universal Turing Machine (@universalturing.bsky.social) a go. Give them both a follow.

Richard Beard @richbeard.bsky.social · 17d

In this piece there's an excellent summary of The Universal Turing Machine, and what it's for.

‘A resistance to AI’: The author inviting readers to contribute to a mass memoir

Richard Beard says he’s got ‘better at telling the truth’ by arranging his life story on a grid – and invites others to do the same

www.theguardian.com

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Universal Turing Machine @universalturing.bsky.social · 22d

'Over her lifetime the Duchess had got so much of what she wanted that she was largely immune to pleasure. She felt at best a mild satisfaction when something was almost as good as it used to be.' 1991, 24

UTM Guide

www.universalturingmachine.org

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Universal Turing Machine @universalturing.bsky.social · 24d

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Universal Turing Machine @universalturing.bsky.social · 26d

Welcome! A home for anyone who wants to write a memoir and isn’t sure where to start. Full details of how to get involved:
www.universalturingmachine.org

UTM Guide

www.universalturingmachine.org

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Universal Turing Machine @universalturing.bsky.social · 29d

In the next phases, the Universal Turing Machine will grow like this. More details on Monday.

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Universal Turing Machine @universalturing.bsky.social · Sep 11

Story of a life. How would you organise yours? Up to a thousand words for each square.

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Universal Turing Machine @universalturing.bsky.social · Sep 10

'The human need to understand things as a story instead of a series of discrete events can lead to many flawed conclusions.'

Garry Kasparov (2025, 62).

UTM

universalturingmachine.co.uk

Universal Turing Machine @universalturing.bsky.social · Sep 8

The Bookseller jumps the gun - not the 8th but the 15th, next Monday, for the next phase of the UTM. Not surprised they couldn't wait.

Author opens online memoir platform for submissions

Novelist and memoirist Richard Beard is launching “the first-ever mass participation online memoir” on 8th September.

www.thebookseller.com

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Universal Turing Machine @universalturing.bsky.social · Sep 5

'Writing was an information storage technology that allowed me to accumulate thoughts outside the brain, and I loved to do that, to the best of my ability.' 1996, 29

UTM – UTM

universalturingmachine.co.uk

Universal Turing Machine @universalturing.bsky.social · Sep 3

'Fiction required forward planning. Along with motivated characters in detailed locations engaged in plausible actions, a novel was like a game of chess – readers were the partner across the board manipulated from one disposition to another.' 2002, 35

UTM – Richard Beard

universalturingmachine.co.uk

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Universal Turing Machine @universalturing.bsky.social · Sep 2

'The plot was constructed from nothing and the nothing showed through. My ordered cause and effect was no match for the muddle of non-fiction life, and the showmanship of story-telling failed to convince me that my heart was still aglow.' 2019, 52

universalturingmachine.co.uk/utm/

UTM – Richard Beard

universalturingmachine.co.uk

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Universal Turing Machine @universalturing.bsky.social · Aug 30

'A game for the library and the sanitorium, for the asylum, the in-time play of chess was absurdly inferior to football, to shins and slide-tackles and the sweet physical possession of the ball at my feet. I was too much body, not enough brain.' 1980, 13

universalturingmachine.co.uk

Richard Beard

universalturingmachine.co.uk

Universal Turing Machine @universalturing.bsky.social · Aug 29

UTM in The Tablet.

The way, the truth and the life – a new path to writing and publishing a memoir - The Tablet

The Christian gospels can be read as stories, but also as memories. The Evangelists – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – make early moves towards the genre of

www.thetablet.co.uk

Universal Turing Machine @universalturing.bsky.social · Aug 28

'I intended to live and write for free in an eighteenth-century French chateau. In return, the bachelor owner of the chateau expected what he could also get, he told me, from any boy in the village, not for free, admittedly, but in most cases for about five hundred francs.’ 1990, 23

Richard Beard

universalturingmachine.co.uk

Universal Turing Machine @universalturing.bsky.social · Aug 27

'Neither branch of the family contained writers, though Mum did love to edit the furniture.' 1973, 6

universalturingmachine.co.uk

Richard Beard

universalturingmachine.co.uk

Universal Turing Machine @universalturing.bsky.social · Aug 23

'My favourite exhibit at Bletchley was Hut 11 and the replica of Alan Turing’s Colossus, where he once worked with his prep-school hair, scratching his head and making a squelching noise with his mouth when deep in thought.' 2027, 60

universalturingmachine.co.uk

Richard Beard

universalturingmachine.co.uk

Universal Turing Machine @universalturing.bsky.social · Aug 21

'Death could cut a person off at any moment, but like everyone I pretended I didn’t know this future to be true, and I didn’t let the certainty of death spoil my enjoyment of cricket.’ 1979, 12

universalturingmachine.co.uk

Richard Beard

universalturingmachine.co.uk

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Universal Turing Machine @universalturing.bsky.social · Aug 20

'On my first night as a student I was an idiot. The pubs closed, and with a slick of rain on the cobbles I had a fist-fight.'

1985, 18

universalturingmachine.co.uk

Richard Beard

universalturingmachine.co.uk

Universal Turing Machine @universalturing.bsky.social · Aug 18

'I used words like tilth, and beneath the comfort-blanket of grey English skies I shied away from the stresses of ambition.'

1999, 32

universalturingmachine.co.uk

Richard Beard

universalturingmachine.co.uk

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Universal Turing Machine @universalturing.bsky.social · Aug 8

'Marriage ought to be more than a refuge, I thought. Better sorry than safe.’ 1993, 26

So many mistakes, so little time.

universalturingmachine.co.uk

Richard Beard

universalturingmachine.co.uk