Could you write a memoir of your life in 64 chapters of no more than 1000 words each? A memoir that could be read and enjoyed in any order? That is the challenge of the Universal Turing Machine.
The Universal Turing Machine
The Universal Turing Machine (UTM) is a mass participation project for writers of memoir that explicitly challenges the use of AI in creative writing. The initiator is Richard Beard, an English author of fiction and non-fiction (including the award-winning memoir, The Day that Went Missing).
Famously, the Turing test, posited by mathematician Alan Turing in 1950, proposed that a computer could be described as intelligent if, in “conversation” with a human being, the human was unable to distinguish the machine from another human. As the Wikipedia entry for Turing Test observes, “Since the mid-2020s, several large language models such as ChatGPT have passed modern, rigorous variants of the Turing test.”
In June this year, on the anniversary of Alan Turing’s death, Richard Beard published a new memoir of his life, The Universal Turing Machine. Sixty-four chapters that correspond to the 64 squares of a chess board and the years of Beard’s own life (with a few future years thrown in for good measure). One strand of Beard’s memoir places the events of his life alongside the development of AI.
The UTM Project
But this was only the first phase of the UTM project. In September Beard went on to publish the text of his memoir on-line, seeding the UTM, and inviting other writers to contribute their own memoirs in 64 x 1000 word chunks. The memoirs in the UTM are not navigated chronologically, but by means of a Knight’s Tour – two squares forward and one to the side. This has implications for how authors will choose to write their entries.
The plan is for new contributions to line up with the existing story board so readers can move not only around a single memoir, but from one memoir to another. Beard’s ambition is for the UTM to become “a unique storehouse of authentic non-AI generated human experience, in written form.”
I imagine some writers and readers will be put off by the whole idea – or by aspects of it. The apparently random nature of the reading experience perhaps. Myself, I find it fascinating and I have already started composing my memoir for the UTM.
But what about you? How could you write a version of your memoir in such a way that it fits into the parameters of the UTM?
Your writing prompt
- Write a (1000 word) outline of your plan, defining how you would fit your story into the UTM parameters. How would you seek to hold a readers’ attention for the limited 1000 words of each chapter/square while still remaining true to the overarching idea of a memoir of your life?
- Or, write a (max 1000 word) sample of one of your 64 chapters.
Further external links
To read Richard Beard’s memoir, The Universal Turing Machine, click on the chess board above, or click on this link: https://universalturingmachine.co.uk/utm/
About the UTM on Richard Beard’s website: https://richardbeard.co.uk/2025/06/23/universal-turing-machine/
Alan Turing on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing
The Knight’s Tour on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight’s_tour
Picture credit: Kyle Gese, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Fascinating post, John… and unusual prompt. Thanks!
I’m glad you find it interesting Gail. I hope others do too.
How odd, this connects very closely to the blog I sketched out for next week’s Writing Life this morning, before coming online. We really do think alike at times.
Ha! Is this a case of Great Minds, Gill? I hope I’ve not inadvertantly trespassed on your blog.
I guess my mind must work more like AI than Beard’s. I can’t figure his nomenclature out. I can read (2002, 35) but I don’t know what the “35” means. Beard doesn’t bother to explain it anywhere that I can find. I can’t access (2002, 33) or (2002, 37) at all even though they are referred to in (2002, 35). Do they exist on another chessboard somewhere? I understand the Knight’s move concept, I just don’t understand the reference system or how to navigate within a single year / square. I asked AI, it doesn’t understand either.
Hi Ken, Welcome to Pens Around the World! This is not really the place to answer you. You can ask Richard Beard direct questions in the UTM Facebook group, here. I had the same question as you, more or less, and you’ll find my question and his answer in the UTM FB thread dated 27 September. In case you can’t open Facebook – or don’t use it – I’m sending you privately a copy of our exchange. Cheers, John