“The "scanned symbol" is the only one of which the machine is... "directly aware."”

— Alan Turing, Computable Numbers

However, by altering its m-configuration the machine can effectively remember some of the symbols which it has "seen" (scanned) previously.
On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem (1936)

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Alan Turing33

British mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst, and computer… 1912–1954

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“The "scanned symbol" is the only one of which the machine is... "directly aware."”

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