[Nomic] Money Money Money

[Adam Biltcliffe]

On Sep 24 2004, Mike Cripps wrote:

> I worry about making the AutoNomic too specific - you're going to have 
> to examine rules _very_ carefully to determine allowable actions. I 
> suggest just using the AutoNomic to keep track of Proposals and the ilk.
> 
> At least, that's what the system I'm thinking of shall do ;)

"Players who try to go beyond text processing and actually put some Nomic 
bookkeeping in a program are warned that the complexities are subtle. 
First, such a program should be as easy to modify as the rules of the game, 
or else the difficulty of changing it will put an unwanted brake on play. 
Moreover, it is very easy inadvertently to give the program decisions to 
make that are not actually clerical and that belong to the players, that 
is, to change Nomic without realizing it. This is true even of the most 
deceptively simple decisions such as renumbering rules after amendment, 
computing scores, and deciding who plays next. For the same reasons, mere 
word processing can introduce distortions. Decisions necessary to write a 
program or edit text may require a precision not explicit in the rule as 
written, in which case the programmer usurps the power of the game Judge if 
she simply chooses a reading of the rule. In any case, the game Judge 
should be the final arbiter of all questions and decisions, even those made 
by a program, unless of course a rule has changed the role of the Judge."

 -- Peter Suber (inventor of Nomic)

That said, Suber had some silly ideas. But I'm with him on this one.

adam