[s-d] About A Nomic

[comex <comexk@xxxxxxxxx>]

Two interpretation issues have been raised which might prevent a return to A.

First, the issue with Comment Text:

Rule 8/0 (an initial rule) in A reads:
{
Excepting any text in the Rule prior to and including this sentence,
any text appearing within doubled square brackets ("[[" and "]]")
shall be considered "comment" text. Comment text shall not have the
force of Rule; its purpose is solely elucidative or demonstrative.
}

This is vague, and Wooble thinks that the difference between 'between'
and 'within' is significant, but if we interpret this as meaning that
any text appearing between any doubled square brackets is comment
text, that means that the comment text rule itself is commented out,
because rules prior to it contain square brackets.  As this is a
paradoxical interpretation, we can assume that it's invalid.  This is
the case in the initial ruleset [1] and the current ruleset [2], so it
probably has been the case continuously, and we can ignore that issue.

Next, the Turing Test:
{
A Player is an Agent who is capable of passing the Turing Test,
consents to said designation as a Player, and has become a Player in
the manner proscribed in the Rules.
}

The issue is that Turing Tests are designed for computers, and perhaps
can't be passed by humans.  But either we are interpreting this
hyperliterally or not.  If we're not, then we're fine, because clearly
the intent of the rule was that any Agent who cannot be distinguished
from a human (including, trivially, a human) can become a Player.  If
we are being hyperliteral, I propose that humans are machines, and are
therefore generally capable of playing the role of a machine in a
Turing Test.  As it is reasonable that the questioner in a Turing Test
might give a final response of the form 'X is a human and Y is not',
which would be incorrect no matter what in a test with two human
responders, humans are also generally capable of passing Turing Tests.
 (Depending on your definition of 'the Turing Test', similar arguments
apply.)  Therefore, no matter how we interpret the Rules, humans are
capable of passing Turing Tests.

If the Ruleset recorded as current is correct, all players except Joel
are [Away] (Rule 307), and do not count toward Quorum.  Anyone who
wants to play should create (as allowed by Rule 120) a Motion to Add
(Rule 210) naming emself; two days later, without objection, e will
become a player (Rule 229).  For tidiness, Motions to Remove (Rule
314) should be submitted naming the inactive players; they can be
removed in 30 days, but don't count toward Quorum so there's no rush.
Joel should either start distributing ballots, etc., or resign, in
which case e can name another player to become the Administrator.

It is currently nweek 313, nday 4.  Voting on this nweek's Ballot will
start on nday 8.

[1] http://www.nomic.net/deadgames/a/www/Rules.Initial.html
[2] http://www.nomic.net/deadgames/a/www/Rules.Numerical.1.html
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