„In some of the configurations in which the scanned square is blank… the machine writes down a new symbol on the scanned square: in other configurations it erases the scanned symbol.“

— Alan Turing
„The "scanned symbol" is the only one of which the machine is... "directly aware."“
— Alan Turing
„The machine may also change the square which is being scanned, but only by shifting it one place to right or left.“
— Alan Turing
„The machine is supplied with a "tape" (the analogue of paper) running through it, and divided into sections (called "squares") each capable of bearing a "symbol."“
— Alan Turing
„When you write a book, you spend day after day scanning and identifying the trees. When you’re done, you have to step back and look at the forest.“
— Stephen King
„If an ɑ-machine prints two kinds of symbols, of which the first kind (called figures) consists entirely of 0 and 1 (the others being called symbols of the second kind), then the machine will be called a computing machine.“
— Alan Turing