RE: spoon-discuss: RE: Numbering the monkeys

[Greg Ritter <gritter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

In Suber's original ruleset (cf. 
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/writing/nomic.htm#initial%20set), numbering 
is important because the ruleset is designed to mimic constitutional law, 
where some laws are easily changed (mutable) and some are not (immutable). 
The mutable and immutable laws are distinguished by their number.

Likewise the precedence issue is also tied into the numbering. In Suber's 
initial ruleset, the lower numbered rules take precedence not only because 
they were first, but because the lowest numbered rules are the most 
foundational. E.g. our Rule 10 is Rule #1 in Suber's initial ruleset. Any 
rule below 200 is immutable, while those 200 and above are mutable.

The problem with Suber's initial ruleset is that it really was designed for 
face-to-face, round-robin play and doesn't work well for asynchronous 
internet play. Many of the initial ruleset's that start internet Nomic 
games are not nearly as well thought out as Suber's initial ruleset, though.

--gritter

At 01:13 PM 1/21/2002 +0000, you wrote:
> > Since the numbering system factors into rule precedence, it's probably a
> > bad idea to fiddle with it.
>
> Actually, that's one of the reasons *for* renumbering stuff - it means we
> can have the important rules (proosals, CFJs... the procedural parts of the
> ruleset) take precedence over the rest (scoring, dimensions, sushi...). As
> it stands, rule 152 is less important than rule 151, which is a little
> silly.
>
> uin.