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Archive / Horn / 1998 → present7 / 7 reconstructed · living corpus
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Recovered artifact · reconstructed corpus

Can computers
think?

Robert E. Horn mapped one great debate across seven enormous sheets. The sheets are fixed historical artifacts. Their argument structure is now a machine-readable corpus again.

808numbered boxes reconstructed
78issue regions reconstructed
7poster artifacts composed
8cross-map argument bridges
The source

Seven walls
of argument.

The recovered files are single-page, searchable PDFs with live text and vector content. Their metadata records a 2017 export of Horn's 1998 work.

They are described here as source-preserving reduced PDF exports of the 1998 maps, not as the original production files.

Each print master has a SHA-256 documentary fingerprint. The print masters control box numbering, attribution, issue boundaries and arrow topology. Web views and the reconstructed graph remain projections of that authority.

The seven maps

A debate at wall scale.

All seven numbered corpora are admitted exactly once and all seven posters have canonical composed graph artifacts.

01reconstructed

Can Computers Think?

Boxes
131 / 131
Issue regions
11 / 11

Poster composed · artifact fingerprinted · audit wired

59.0 × 37.1 in1 pagesearchable PDF
Preservation fingerprintSHA-256 bc506c77c6fc807e9526e3f0fb5b615db142ed3e52acb261ac2d14bbd49597d4
Open source PDF ↗
02reconstructed

Can the Turing Test Determine Whether Computers Can Think?

Boxes
110 / 110
Issue regions
10 / 10

Poster composed · printed cross-links audited · artifact fingerprinted

60.6 × 37.5 in1 pagesearchable PDF
Preservation fingerprintSHA-256 608581d021b910398d9bbab78e302e1fb0e0610a950342fa7926e37164c5ce2b
Open source PDF ↗
03reconstructed

Can Physical Symbol Systems Think?

Boxes
125 / 125
Issue regions
12 / 12

Poster composed · cross-map references preserved · artifact fingerprinted

60 × 37 in1 pagesearchable PDF
Preservation fingerprintSHA-256 a69786ae5bb283f35fa327126f77f7c4371b63eb8eb6551cf373562b7f430f97
Open source PDF ↗
04reconstructed

Can Chinese Rooms Think?

Boxes
105 / 105
Issue regions
14 / 14

Nested poster trunks composed · Map 5 bridge recovered

60 × 37 in1 pagesearchable PDF
Preservation fingerprintSHA-256 d79abebdb4e4cb427cff80c9dc6ab33f864a0bed7f9e1197e8ed9a5a135d6fb1
Open source PDF ↗
05reconstructed

Can Connectionist Networks Think? Can Computers Think in Images?

Boxes
118 / 118
Issue regions
13 / 13

One continuous corpus · two thematic openings · poster composed

60 × 37 in1 pagesearchable PDF
Preservation fingerprintSHA-256 82d30e6fb9687bafb22c99095e2fa2c0aa7c2e0d27f209de0dafc554528bfd83
Open source PDF ↗
06reconstructed

Do Computers Have To Be Conscious To Think?

Boxes
97 / 97
Issue regions
8 / 8

Poster composed · Map 2 support recovered · artifact fingerprinted

60 × 37 in1 pagesearchable PDF
Preservation fingerprintSHA-256 ec96be1336906a403852ee8a8d78e58ca4fb3a4bbef2800fd3b359f80f315ba7
Open source PDF ↗
07reconstructed

Are Thinking Computers Mathematically Possible?

Boxes
122 / 122
Issue regions
10 / 10

Gödel/Lucas topology recovered · poster composed · artifact fingerprinted

60 × 37 in1 pagesearchable PDF
Preservation fingerprintSHA-256 0a5ed69ee0671681b03181b953a822773215ba269dd2712e2324f4dc274f8e66
Open source PDF ↗
Seven-map corpus

The islands connect.

The seven poster artifacts remain independently content-addressed. A derived, namespaced corpus composes them without changing their local historical identity, then promotes only explicit documentary cross-map support and dispute references.

808numbered historical boxes
78issue regions
7canonical map artifacts
0unresolved admitted argument refs
Map 1 / Box 35supported byMap 3 / Box 25
Map 2 / Box 24supported byMap 4 / Box 55
Map 2 / Box 52supported byMap 1 / Box 106
Map 3 / Box 103disputed byMap 1 / Box 74
Map 4 / Box 4supported byMap 5 / Box 5
Map 5 / Box 3supported byMap 4 / Box 3
Map 5 / Box 3supported byMap 7 / Box 23
Map 6 / Box 12supported byMap 2 / Box 2
7 fingerprinted print masters → 7 canonical poster artifacts → namespaced seven-map corpus → web / accessible text / spatial / conversation

One historical graph, many projections. “Also see” navigation stays navigation. Only documentary support/dispute references become argument edges.

Parallel editionAffect Reason Utility

The surviving web rendition remains useful for navigation and independent transcription checks. It does not override the print masters.

Explore the web rendition ↗
Independent visual recordDavid Rumsey Map Collection

Rumsey preserves a high-quality scan of Map 1, providing an independent visual reference for the printed artifact.

View the Rumsey record ↗
Provenance

Frozen in 1998.
Exported in 2017.
Recovered in 2026.

  1. 1998
    MacroVU Press publishes Version 1.0

    Mapping Great Debates: Can Computers Think? appears as seven large-format maps and an accompanying handbook.

  2. 2017
    Reduced PDFs are exported

    The recovered files retain searchable text and vector content from the historical maps.

  3. 2026
    The seven-map corpus is recovered

    All seven print masters are fingerprinted. All 808 numbered boxes and 78 issue regions are admitted into seven provenance-bearing poster artifacts, and eight explicit cross-map argumentative references are resolved into the derived corpus.

The unfinished idea

The poster was never really the point.

Horn's subject is a living argument: claims answer claims, objections branch, citations accumulate, and one debate opens into another. Paper froze that structure because paper had to.

First preserve the artifact. Then let the argument move.
Archive note

This page is a preservation and research record. Robert E. Horn supplied the recovered PDFs and explicitly permitted the documents and maps to be shared with others. They are published here under that permission. Copyright in the maps and artwork remains with Robert E. Horn; no broader license is claimed.