Re: spoon-discuss: The Agent Joel Uckelman is not a Player.

[Joel Uckelman <uckelman@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Quoth "Kieron Jarvis":
> NB: This is still not being sent as an RFJ because I'd like to avoid having
> to restart the game due to paradox. C'mon Joel, make yourself a Player
> before the paradox becomes worse.
> 
> I would state:
> The Agent Joel Uckelman is not a Player.
> 
> My reasons for this statement are as follows:
> 
> The Agent Joel Uckelman has sent no posts to the business list stating a
> desire to become a Player.
> 
> 
> Rule 106:
> "A Player is an Agent who...has become a Player in the manner proscribed in
> the Rules."
> 
> makes it clear that an Agent may only become a Player as proscribed in the
> Rules. The only rules that allow an Agent to become a player are these two.
> 
> Rule 209:
> "During the first nweek of play, any Agent otherwise qualified as a Player
> may become one by publicly declaring eir desire to be so."
> 
> Rule 210:
> "Any Agent otherwise qualified as a Player may become one if a Motion to Add
> naming em is adopted..."
> 
> 
> The Agent Joel Uckelman has fulfilled neither of these requirements.
> 
> I expect that e would argue from
> 
> Rule 208:
> "...The Player whose real name is Joel Uckelman is the Administrator..."
> 
> I would argue that the explicit requirements of becoming a Player would
> override the implicit assumption of R208 that e is a Player.
> 
> Again, I remind you that I will drop the matter if he just sends a post to
> explicitly request becoming a Player.
> 
> Yours Sincerely,
> 
> XnJester
> 

There is nothing inconsistent with starting the game as a Player. To do so 
_assumes_ that I am a Player. That's what an initial condition is--an 
assumption that something is true of the game state at time 0. By R106 and 
the assumption of my Playerhood, it follows by definition that I consent 
and have "become a Player in the manner proscribed in the Rules". If you 
reject one of the initial conditions, viz. that I started as a Player, then 
we're just not playing the same game.

Besides, even if you're right, the solution isn't as easy as declaring 
myself a Player, because if I'm not a Player I'm not the Admin, and if I'm 
not the Admin I couldn't have created the business list as a public forum, 
so *no* legal actions could yet have been taken, or will ever be possible, 
since there is no way to become Admin.

-- 
J.

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