Universal Turing Machine
@universalturing.bsky.social
A new direction for memoir. Everyone welcome.
https://www.universalturingmachine.org
https://universalturingmachine.co.uk
https://www.universalturingmachine.org
https://universalturingmachine.co.uk
'In the USA they had Trump and in Britain we had Brexit, as if being smart was suddenly less important. Human stupidity was out and about, as if at a specific moment we lost sight of certain objectives.' 2018, 51
universalturingmachine.co.uk
universalturingmachine.co.uk
UTM
universalturingmachine.co.uk
November 6, 2025 at 5:07 PM
'In the USA they had Trump and in Britain we had Brexit, as if being smart was suddenly less important. Human stupidity was out and about, as if at a specific moment we lost sight of certain objectives.' 2018, 51
universalturingmachine.co.uk
universalturingmachine.co.uk
Monthly newsletter out today. Tips, reminders and all things UTM. If anyone wants a copy and isn't on the list: email connect@universalturingmachine.co.uk
October 6, 2025 at 10:07 AM
Monthly newsletter out today. Tips, reminders and all things UTM. If anyone wants a copy and isn't on the list: email connect@universalturingmachine.co.uk
'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
October 2, 2025 at 11:26 AM
'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
'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/
was left? What was written.' 2023, 56
universalturingmachine.co.uk/utm/
UTM – UTM
universalturingmachine.co.uk
October 1, 2025 at 2:19 PM
'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/
was left? What was written.' 2023, 56
universalturingmachine.co.uk/utm/
'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
September 29, 2025 at 2:39 PM
'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
'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
September 26, 2025 at 4:17 PM
'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
Reposted by Universal Turing Machine
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.
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
September 24, 2025 at 9:08 AM
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.
'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
September 19, 2025 at 10:28 AM
'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
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
www.universalturingmachine.org
UTM Guide
www.universalturingmachine.org
September 15, 2025 at 9:54 AM
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
www.universalturingmachine.org
In the next phases, the Universal Turing Machine will grow like this. More details on Monday.
September 12, 2025 at 3:54 PM
In the next phases, the Universal Turing Machine will grow like this. More details on Monday.
Story of a life. How would you organise yours? Up to a thousand words for each square.
September 11, 2025 at 4:10 PM
Story of a life. How would you organise yours? Up to a thousand words for each square.
'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).
Garry Kasparov (2025, 62).
UTM
universalturingmachine.co.uk
September 10, 2025 at 11:56 AM
'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).
Garry Kasparov (2025, 62).
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
September 8, 2025 at 6:18 PM
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.
'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
September 5, 2025 at 12:23 PM
'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
'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
September 3, 2025 at 2:11 PM
'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
'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/
universalturingmachine.co.uk/utm/
UTM – Richard Beard
universalturingmachine.co.uk
September 2, 2025 at 8:40 AM
'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/
universalturingmachine.co.uk/utm/
'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
universalturingmachine.co.uk
Richard Beard
universalturingmachine.co.uk
August 30, 2025 at 10:35 AM
'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
universalturingmachine.co.uk
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
August 29, 2025 at 10:24 AM
UTM in The Tablet.
'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
August 28, 2025 at 11:08 AM
'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
'Neither branch of the family contained writers, though Mum did love to edit the furniture.' 1973, 6
universalturingmachine.co.uk
universalturingmachine.co.uk
Richard Beard
universalturingmachine.co.uk
August 27, 2025 at 2:51 PM
'Neither branch of the family contained writers, though Mum did love to edit the furniture.' 1973, 6
universalturingmachine.co.uk
universalturingmachine.co.uk
'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
universalturingmachine.co.uk
Richard Beard
universalturingmachine.co.uk
August 23, 2025 at 8:09 AM
'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
universalturingmachine.co.uk
'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
universalturingmachine.co.uk
Richard Beard
universalturingmachine.co.uk
August 21, 2025 at 2:58 PM
'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
universalturingmachine.co.uk
'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
1985, 18
universalturingmachine.co.uk
Richard Beard
universalturingmachine.co.uk
August 20, 2025 at 12:24 PM
'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
1985, 18
universalturingmachine.co.uk
'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
1999, 32
universalturingmachine.co.uk
Richard Beard
universalturingmachine.co.uk
August 18, 2025 at 1:55 PM
'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
1999, 32
universalturingmachine.co.uk