Re: [s-d] [s-b] This game is boring, let's have an Emergency.

[Craig Daniel <teucer@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, Dec 23, 2010 at 6:54 PM, James Baxter <jebaxter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> OK I think B Nomic is probably platonic as it has no existence except as defined by the rules. If the rules cease to hold power in their
> own right then it just becomes a series of loose customs and none of us would have to follow the rules because the have no real
> meaning. So B Nomic must be platonic.

My take on the nature of B Nomic:

Nomics default to strict Platonism, because as you say their rules are
the only thing that grants them existence. However, those rules might
mandate pragmatism - imagine a board game with the understanding that
an invalid play is left to stand if not spotted right away, because it
makes things simpler. Agora does this *a lot*; B Nomic has often done
it a little, though during the BGoran Era it did it more heavily.

Pragmatism is Agora's way of ensuring stability. B's is emergencies -
if things are breaking down, we have an emergency. Emergencies are a
normal, indeed core, part of B's ruleset, and have been from the
start. To my way of thinking, a tolerance for frequent emergencies
makes Agoran pragmatism unnecessary, just as Agora has no need of any
kind of emergency rule because it solves such problems differently.

As for the present situation with the 2E issue, I'm gonna do what we
always do: enumerate the Woobleverses and try to recombine and/or
destroy as many as possible.

As I see it, there are three possible scenarios: first, that the
greater pragmatism of early B validates the creation of the second
era; second, that it may have been valid then but modern more-platonic
game custom is what matters now; third, and equivalent to the above,
that it never happened at all.

If the platonic gamestate now assumes that the second era happened,
then it happened and everything after it happened and so everything is
as we think it is.

If not, then since the dawn of the second era nobody has ever
intentionally become a player of a game based on first-era rules
(well, except for definitions of "based on" that include the Revival
Era, but you know what I mean). They did, however, leave over time,
their numbers dwindling until one day 100% of the zero players
remaining were recognizing an Emergency; since it was impossible to
agree on a player to be the Emergency Coordinator in the absence of
any players at all, the game then ended.

Meanwhile, however, another game started up, confusingly sharing its
name with the original B Nomic. This game, which might more properly
be known as B Nomic II, continued through the third era, then paused
when ntime got frozen by the comment bug, and then resumed. It's the
game we're playing now. If a Refresh Proposal sending us back in time
passes, however, then it must take us to a ruleset from the second,
third, or sixth era, or the initial rulesets (established via
emergency rather than in frozen ntime) of eras 4 or 5.

Now to merge the two Woobleverses - one in which we can go back to 1E
if the time-twisting RP passes, and one where we can't. This is easier
than it sounds, since, the refresh proposal that's actually looking
likely doesn't refer to past rules of this game - it refers to
historical rulesets, which can most logically be interpreted by
defining history as that which is documented in the history rule.
Because B Nomic II (if it's actually happening) platonically
recognizes B Nomic I as part of its history, 1E rulesets are in fact
historical.

Conclusion: the gamestate is precisely what you think, and may become
something 1E-derived in the future. Or it may not.

 - teucer
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