One can reproduce the original data using PDecode[a_] := Module[{d = Flatten[ a /. p[j_, r_]  Table[p[j], {r}]]}, Flatten[MapIndexed[ If[Head[#1] === p, d 〚 #2 〛 = d 〚 #2 - First[#1] 〛 ,#1] &, d]]] To get a representation purely in terms of 0 and 1, one can use a self-delimiting representation for each integer that appears.

Probably the simplest is a statement shown to be unprovable in Peano arithmetic by Laurence Kirby and Jeff Paris in 1982: that certain sequences g[n] defined by Reuben Goodstein in 1944 are of limited length for all n , where g[n_] := Map[First, NestWhileList[ {f[#] - 1, Last[#] + 1} &, {n, 3}, First[#] > 0 &]] f[{0, _}] = 0; f[{n_, k_}] := Apply[Plus, MapIndexed[#1 k^f[{#2 〚 1 〛 - 1, k}] &, Reverse[IntegerDigits[n, k - 1]]]] As in the pictures below, g[1] is {1, 0} , g[2] is {2, 2, 1, 0} and g[3] is {3, 3, 3, 2, 1, 0} . g[4] increases quadratically for a long time, with only element 3 × 2 402653211 - 2 finally being 0.

With the state of a 2-color tag system encoded as an integer according to FromDigits[Reverse[list] + 1, 3] the following takes the rule for any such tag system (in the first form from page 894 ) and yields a primitive recursive function that emulates a single step in its evolution: TSToPR[{n_, rule_}] := Fold[Apply[c, Flatten[{#1, Array[p, # 2], c[r[z, c[r[p[1], s], c[r[z, p[2]], c[r[z, r[c[s, z], c[r[c[s, c[s, z]], z], p[2]]]], p[2]]], p[1]]], p[#2]]}]] & , c[c[r[p[1], s], p[1], c[r[p[1], r[z, c[s, c[s, s]]]], c[c[r[z, c[r[p[1], s], c[r[z, c[s, z]], c[r[p[1], r[z, c[r[p[1], s], c[r[z, p[2]], c[ r[z, r[c[s, z], c[r[c[s, c[s, z]], z], p[2]]]], p[2]]], p[1]]]], p[2], p[3]]], p[1]]], p[1], p[1]], p[1]], p[2]]], p[n + 1], MapIndexed[c[r[z, c[r[p[1], p[4]], p[2], p[3], p[4]]], c[r[z, r[c[s, z], c[r[c[s, c[s, z]], z], p[2]]]], p[Length[#2] + 1]], # 1 〚 1 〛 , #1 〚 2 〛 ] & , Nest[Partition[#1, 2] & , Table[Nest[c[s, #] & z, FromDigits[Reverse[IntegerDigits[i, 2, n] /. rule] + 1, 3]], {i, 0, 2 n - 1}], n - 1], {0, n - 1}]], Range[n, 1, -1]] (For tag system (a) from page 94 this yields a primitive recursive function of size 325.)

Here are examples of how some of the basic Mathematica constructs used in the notes in this book work: • Iteration Nest[f, x, 3] ⟶ f[f[f[x]]] NestList[f, x, 3] ⟶ {x, f[x], f[f[x]], f[f[f[x]]]} Fold[f, x, {1, 2}] ⟶ f[f[x, 1], 2] FoldList[f, x, {1, 2}] ⟶ {x, f[x, 1], f[f[x, 1], 2]} • Functional operations Function[x, x + k][a] ⟶ a + k (# + k&)[a] ⟶ a + k (r[#1] + s[#2]&)[a, b] ⟶ r[a] + s[b] Map[f, {a, b, c}] ⟶ {f[a], f[b], f[c]} Apply[f, {a, b, c}] ⟶ f[a, b, c] Select[{1, 2, 3, 4, 5}, EvenQ] ⟶ {2, 4} MapIndexed[f, {a, b, c}] ⟶ {f[a, {1}], f[b, {2}], f[c, {3}]} • List manipulation {a, b, c, d} 〚 3 〛 ⟶ c {a, b, c, d} 〚 {2, 4, 3, 2} 〛 ⟶ {b, d, c, b} Take[{a, b, c, d, e}, 2] ⟶ {a, b} Drop[{a, b, c, d, e}, -2] ⟶ {a, b, c} Rest[{a, b, c, d}] ⟶ {b, c, d} ReplacePart[{a, b, c, d}, x, 3] ⟶ {a, b, x, d} Length[{a, b, c}] ⟶ 3 Range[5] ⟶ {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} Table[f[i], {i, 4}] ⟶ {f[1], f[2], f[3], f[4]} Table[f[i, j], {i, 2}, {j, 3}] ⟶ {{f[1, 1], f[1, 2], f[1, 3]}, {f[2, 1], f[2, 2], f[2, 3]}} Array[f, {2, 2}] ⟶ {{f[1, 1], f[1, 2]}, {f[2, 1], f[2, 2]}} Flatten[{{a, b}, {c}, {d, e}}] ⟶ {a, b, c, d, e} Flatten[{{a, {b, c}}, {{d}, e}}, 1] ⟶ {a, {b, c}, {d}, e} Partition[{a, b, c, d}, 2, 1] ⟶ {{a, b}, {b, c}, {c, d}} Split[{a, a, a, b, b, a, a}] ⟶ {{a, a, a}, {b, b}, {a, a}} ListConvolve[{a, b}, {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}] ⟶ {2a + b, 3a + 2b, 4a + 3b, 5a + 4b} Position[{a, b, c, a, a}, a] ⟶ {{1}, {4}, {5}} RotateLeft[{a, b, c, d, e}, 2] ⟶ {c, d, e, a, b} Join[{a, b, c}, {d, b}] ⟶ {a, b, c, d, b} Union[{a, a, c, b, b}] ⟶ {a, b, c} • Transformation rules {a, b, c, d} /. b  p ⟶ {a, p, c, d} {f[a], f[b], f[c]} /. f[a]  p ⟶ {p, f[b], f[c]} {f[a], f[b], f[c]} /. f[x_]  p[x] ⟶ {p[a], p[b], p[c]} {f[1], f[b], f[2]} /. f[x_Integer]  p[x] ⟶ {p[1], f[b], p[2]} {f[1, 2], f[3], f[4, 5]} /. f[x_, y_]  x + y ⟶ {3, f[3], 9} {f[1], g[2], f[2], g[3]} /. f[1] | g[_]  p ⟶ {p, p, f[2], p} • Numerical functions Quotient[207, 10] ⟶ 20 Mod[207, 10] ⟶ 7 Floor[1.45] ⟶ 1 Ceiling[1.45] ⟶ 2 IntegerDigits[13, 2] ⟶ {1, 1, 0, 1} IntegerDigits[13, 2, 6] ⟶ {0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 1} DigitCount[13, 2, 1] ⟶ 3 FromDigits[{1, 1, 0, 1}, 2] ⟶ 13 The Mathematica programs in these notes are formatted in Mathematica StandardForm .

The number of steps before a machine with given rule halts can be computed from (see page 888 ) Module[{s = 1, a, i = 1, d}, a[_] = 0; MapIndexed[a[#2 〚 1 〛 ] = #1 &, Reverse[IntegerDigits[x, 2]]]; Do[{s, a[i], d} = {s, a[i]} /. rule; i -= d; If[i  0, Return[t]], {t, tmax}]] Of the 4096 Turing machines with s = 2 , k = 2 , 748 never halt, 3348 sometimes halt and 1683 always halt.