======================== ROUND 137, Final Summary ======================== As of 15:38:32 GMT today, Garth A. Rose was the only eligible member remaining. Therefore, Round 137 is over and Garth shall be the Judge for the next round. As represented below, Jeremy accrued the most style points and shall be Wizard. STYLE & RESULTS Member Style Results ------------------------------------------------ Great Guru +0.5 Ed Murphy +2.0 Ronald Kunne +2.5 Nicholson Neisler +1.75 Jeremy Selengut +4.25 WIZARD Garth A. Rose +2.75 JUDGE RULE SUMMARY Rule Author Validity Style ------------------------------------------------ 137:1 Jeremy Selengut VALID +1.25 137:2 Ronald Kunne INVALID +0.5 137:3 Great Guru INVALID +0.5 137:4 Nicholas Neisler VALID +1.0 137:5 Nicholas Neisler VALID +0.75 137:6 Ronald Kunne INVALID +2.0 137:7 Ed Murphy INVALID +2.0 137:8 Jeremy Selengut VALID +3.0 137:9 Garth A. Rose VALID +2.75 / Jared Sunshine ut dixi ita fiat [ t e m p u s f u g i t ] -- Rule Date: 2000-05-25 18:39:16 GMT ====================================================================== ---------- 137:1 ---------- In honor of Mother's Day, we will all emulate mothers via the creation of virtual living beings ("little creatures"). Our little creatures live inside a virtual world known as "the Matrix" which is a topologically simple 10 by 10 by 10 cubical grid in a euclidian 3-D space. All of our little creatures are named in honor of our mothers, motherhood in general or the gift of life. The names of each of our little creatures must be stated (and the significance or meaning of the names explained) in the first rule in which they appear. My little creature is named Chaim (Hebrew for "life") and presently resides on a node at one of the Matrix's faces. Chaim is not certain where he is with any more precision at the moment, but I am hoping he will grow and learn in his increasingly interesting environment. ---- JUDGMENT OF 137:1 ---- Rule 137:1 is VALID. Style is +1.25 for: - specific mention of honoring Mothers' Day - clever integration of The Matrix into rule - leaves a lot of room for development of future rules without being trivial - nice foreign language use with "Chaim" ---------- 137:2 ---------- My creature is named after my mother, Carina. Between each two valid Rules, Carina (as well as any other creature in the Matrix) move from one node in the grid to another. Each rule will state some property of the Matrix or their inhabitants. For instance: as the little creatures are very social, at any moment there is at least one node occupied by two creatures. ---- JUDGMENT OF 137:2 ---- Rule 137:2 is INVALID As I interpret it, the only creatures in The Matrix are those created by these rules--after all, they are our "creations" per 137:1. 137:2 presents the property that at any moment (which may be past, present, or future), there are two creatures in one node of the Matrix. At all moments after the start of the round with Jeremy's posting and before this posting, there was only one creature in The Matrix (Chaim), and thus this property cannot be fulfilled during that period. Style is +0.5 for: - nice idea describing movement of the creatures - also good try at fleshing out The Matrix by requiring properties in rules ---------- 137:3 ---------- My darling little creature is named Grabby. Grabby has only one hand, but he likes to use it. Whenever he's in the same node as another creature, he'll grab onto that creature and drag it with him for his next move, unless they have some means of avoiding being grabbed or moved, of course. While he can only grab something when he's stopped moving (that is, not between rules) when he has the choice he'll grab something different from what he's currently holding, if he can. Right now Grabby's all alone though, poor thing. For safety's sake, let's all make sure there are never more than three creatures in any given node at a time. ---- JUDGMENT OF 137:3 ---- Rule 137:3 is INVALID. 137:1 requires that the little creatures be named "in honor of our mothers, motherhood in general or the gift of life", and that the significance of the name be explained. As far as I can tell (and no explanation of the name is apparent other than due to his grabbing tendencies), "Grabby" has nothing to do with any of the subjects 137:1 requires. Style is +0.5 for: - another nice try to get some complex moving going on - stylish presentation of requirements on future rules ---------- 137:4 ---------- Somehow I got stuck with Tough (he is one tough mother). I can see he is in a node next to Chaim. Watch out Chaim! Tough is so tough that nothing can move him. Not even Grabby. In fact, no other creature can even share the same node as him, and if he moves into a node, that creature is pushed out. My mother would be ashamed. ---- JUDGMENT OF 137:4 ---- Rule 137:4 is VALID. - Per 137:1, creates and names a new little creature (Tough) - Per 137:1, explains how the name is appropriate per naming requirements ("tough mother" is acceptable) Style is +1.0 for: - Nice attributes for Tough - Gratuitous last line is cute and apropos ---------- 137:5 ---------- Interestingly enough, most of the creatures in The Matrix can't visit the most of the nodes on their own. That is because they are limited to travel on the faces of the Matrix. Chaim and Tough are good examples. It is easy to refer to a face by a number. Then only a 2 digit number is needed to describe the node on that face. In fact right now, Chaim and Tough are on Face 3. Chaim is at 5,6 and Tough is at 5,5. Tough is moving right toward Chaim, and I think next round Chaim will end up in one of three node on Face 3: 5,7 or 4,6 or 6,6. He can't end up in 5,5 because that is where Tough just came from. And he can't move diagonal, not when you are on a face. ---- JUDGMENT OF 137:5 ---- Rule 137:5 is VALID. As I have thus far interpreted 137:1, each person must create a "little creature" (viz. "we will all emulate mothers via the creation of virtual living beings ('little creatures')"). However, I have not yet addressed whether /every rule/ must effect such a creation. I believe that the rule only requires that each person create in their first rule (at least) a single little creature, and Nicholson has already accomplished this in 137:4. We'll have to see how the movement of the little creatures comes to effect The Matrix...no doubt future rules will further address the results of their movement. At present, Chaim seems to be in transit to one of the three faces mentioned in 137:5, and Tough is following him ("moving right toward" him). However, since no transit times are given, I doubt either Chaim will reach his destinations nor Tough will reach Chaim unless some rule establishes timetables for movement (akin to the attempts of 137:2 which would have movement accomplished between each set of valid rules). Style is +0.75 for: - Getting some movement going in The Matrix - Establishing a simple but effective notation system for The Matrix ---------- 137:6 ---------- My creature is Pokemania, to honour the crazy creatures of "the best game in the Universe" (dixit my son). His Position is (2,2) on Face 3 All creatures on the Matrix have a total of five properties. Of these we know already Name and Position. All future rules shall mention another property, until we know them all. The third property is Speed, the number of nodes a creature must move, when he changes position. Chaim's Speed is 1 and he moves to node (5,7) in this Rule. ---- JUDGMENT OF 137:6 ---- It is with considerable sadness that I deem Rule 137:6 to be INVALID. Unfortunately, I must revisit the requirements as to the name of 137:1. It requires that "our little creatures are named in honor of our mothers, motherhood in general or the gift of life". I have already considered the case where the little creature's name is not clearly related to these three categories in my decision regarding 137:3. All the more so, when the reason for the name is stated and does not fit one of those three categories (as in this case), the rule must be found to be in conflict with 137:1 and thus invalid. I cannot find any connection between the stated source of the name (viz. "the crazy creatures of 'the best game in the Universe'") and Ronald's mother, motherhood in general, or the gift of life. Although I entertained the possibility that "dixit my son" could imply the gift of life, I find this connection too tenuous without further explication within the rule--though if Ronald had been female, those words would more strongly imply motherhood and perhaps be in adherence to 137:1. Moreover, it is the creatures and not this tenuous implication that are the direct object of the honoring required by 137:1. Style is +2 for: - great idea regarding qualities and nice idea requiring other rules to follow up - continuing consideration of previous creatures, e.g. Chaim - excellent codification of previously separate things into comparable categories (e.g. name and position) - additionally, speed is a good quality to add to the above ---------- 137:7 ---------- My creature, Milo, insists that sleeping twenty-three hours a day is a vital aspect of life. In any case, it means that he moves only when forced to do so. And that's happened just now: Tough having completed his move, Chaim was forced to move to (5,7), which in turn forced Milo to move from (5,7) to (4,7). Having watched the creatures up to this point, I have determined that: * Face 3 consists of the nodes with third coordinate zero. Thus (5,5) on Face 3 is (5,5,0). * No face node can remain occupied by more than one creature at a time. * When Chaim is forced to move, he moves in the same direction as the creature forcing him to move. * When Milo is forced to move, he moves perpendicular to the direction of the creature forcing him to move. Future rules will include at least some of the following, until it has all been fully covered: * How the other five Faces' abbreviated coordinates correspond to unabbreviated coordinates. * What criteria determine a creature's ability or inability to travel to non-face nodes. * What happens when a non-face node remains occupied by more than one creature at a time. * What happens when a creature moves to (6,6) on Face 6. ---- JUDGMENT OF 137:7 ---- I (once again, with considerable distress) must find that 137:7 is INVALID. As I have considered in 137:3 and 137:6, the little creatures must be named in honor of one of the three things enumerated in 137:1. In keeping with the precedent set in 137:3: the connection of new little creatures' names to 137:1's "in honor of" requirement must be established by the rule creating the little creature. I cannot find any explanation for how "Milo" fulfills the "in honor of" requirement of 137:1. Style is +2 for: - clever (and clearly stated) new rules for movement - incorporation of existing little creatures into the new rule - well-conceived expansion of the coordinate system - consistency with past ideas of movement and coordinates ---------- 137:8 ---------- All fantasy lands deserve a creation myth, IMHO. The next little creature I have created in the Matrix was created at the beginning of time (as far as the Matrix is concerned). Her name, appropriately enough is The Matrixiarch, since just after the beginning of time The Matrixiarch gave birth to the souls of all the other Little Creatures that will ever exist in the Matrix. So, in a sense, and with the exception of The Matrixiarch herself, we do not "create" our little creatures so much as draw forth their souls from the underface and give them form on the surface of the Matrix. When our little creatures die, their souls descend from the surface, through the underface while The Matrixiarch rises from her domain in the central eight nodes of the Matrix to meet and absorb the dead soul back into her body. Chaim was the first creature given form on the surface of the matrix. Time is linear and discrete in the Matrix. One unit of time progresses forward with each valid rule. After this rule, no rule may describe events that took place in the past that were not described in a prior valid rule. ---- JUDGMENT OF 137:8 ---- Rule 137:8 is VALID. Absolutely wonderful concept: and I believe that "The Matrixiarch" has implicit and clear within the concept of motherhood, based as it is on the word "matriarch." Therefore it satisfies the "in honor of" requirement of 137:1. Style is +3 for: - an amazing storytelling achievement regarding the idea of a creation myth - proper humility was expressed with IMHO - coherent mythos - compelling diction in describing The Matrixiarch - practically intelligent restriction on retroactivity Kudos. -- Rule Date: 2000-05-18 19:01:07 GMT > From: "Garth A. Rose" > Date: Fri, 19 May 2000 00:47:08 -0700 > To: frc@trolltech.com > Subject: 137:9 > > ---------------------- > My little creature is called Mummy. He alone of the creatures of the > Matrix has turned his back on the life-giving goodness of the Matrixiarch > at the first moment of his creation, becoming a shrivelled mockery of > little-creaturedom that hates and rejects all other life. (Hence he is > named after an undead creature, whose name pays a twisted sort of honor > to motherhood.) His fury gives him an unnatural kind of immortality, > though; he alone is immune to death, and forever remains on the faces. > Any creature in the same node as Mummy, or who enters the node that is > his home (node (6,6) on face 6) instantly perishes and never returns to > the faces of the Matrix again. > > The faces of the Matrix are laid out in the same pattern as the faces of > a die - face 1 is opposite face 6, 2 is opposite 5, and 3 is opposite 4. > Each is labelled from (0,0) to (9,9) in an orientation yet to be > established. The little creatures can move to any node on the faces that > is one unit away in one time unit. This is called Walking. Other forms > of movement may be possible if they are explicitly named in rules. > > As life in the Matrix matures, the little creatures begin planning their > movements. Every future rule should state what the moves of at least one > creature will be in at least the next three time units. Mummy started > life in (6,6) of face 6, and will Walk to (6,5), then to (6,4), then to > (5,4). > ------------------------- > > OK, so things were getting a little too cute for me, what can I say? :) > > Garth > > -- > Rule Date: 2000-05-19 07:52:10 GMT > Rule 137:9 is VALID. This rule treads close to contradicting 137:8, but does not actually do so. It accepts that Mummy was created by The Matrixiarch per 137:8, and does not challenge the assertion of 137:8 that dead souls return to The Matrixiarch; rather it merely asserts that Mummy will never die. Further, 137:8 states that dead souls return to The Matrixiarch, whereas 137:9 sates that Mummy's presence annihilates the souls--such a soul "never returns to the faces of the Matrix again". Still, this can be reconciled by explaining that the soul returns to The Matrixiarch but is never reborn, but resides with The Matrixiarch for the rest of eternity. Finally, first reading gave me (from its connection to the creation myth and the immortality) the thought that Garth is suggesting that Mummy has existed for a great deal of time, which would bring it into conflict with 137:8's restriction on descriptions of past events. However, close reading of the literal text reveals no reason to believe Mummy existed before this rule described his creation. Style is +2.75 for: - devilishly clever extension of Jeremy's creation myth to further creatures - compelling narrative skills - further extension of coordinate system - actual pinning down movement, and requiring further definition in rules - I like the phrase "shrivelled mockery of little-creaturedom." In the future, I shall in the Extended Summaries include a chart of the past and expected future movement of each Little Creature. / Jared Sunshine ut dixi ita fiat [ t e m p u s f u g i t ] -- Rule Date: 2000-05-22 01:43:44 GMT