RE: spoon-discuss: RE: Numbering the monkeys

[Greg Ritter <gritter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 01:06 PM 1/22/2002 +0000, you wrote:
> > 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.
> >
> You can take out the immutability and still have precedence.

Of course. That wasn't the point.

In Suber's ruleset having precedence based on numbering made more sense 
because (at least initially) numbering also indicated mutability. It makes 
sense to have the immutable rules take precedence over the mutable rules. 
And since the immutable rules were intended to be more "foundational" they 
were the ones with the lowest number. E.g. our Rule 10 ("obey the rules") 
is more or less the equivalent of Rule 1 in Suber's ruleset.

Precedence by numbering only makes sense if the lowest numbered rules are 
designed to be the most foundational. As it is, in our game, it's more 
important (according to precedence) that the game be named B Nomic than 
that players obey the rules. :-/

--gritter