[MUD-Dev] Re: PvP systems

[Dave Turner]

the_logos at www.achaea.com wrote:
 
> On Sun, 4 Feb 2001, Greg Miller wrote:
 
>> I'm not saying I want a dangerous world. I want a world where I
>> don't have to deal with odd admin rules interpretations, admin
>> whims, and the irritating wait to have some employee come fix my
>> problem for me in those inevitable cases where another player
>> causes me trouble. I want the ability to apply negative
>> reinforcement in the face of inappropriate behavior.
 
> Fair enough, but the problem is how to give you the ability to apply
> negative reinforcement _only_ in the face of inappropriate
> behavior. Inappropriate behavior, unless you adept a very simplistic
> definition of it, can't, as of now, be completely defined in code.

In any world that approaches reality, it can't be completely defined
*ever*.

The reason for this is that in a world approaching reality, users can
create objects that are Turing-complete, that is, that have the
expressive power of a Turing machine (ignoring memory, which doesn't
put a big limitation on it, see http://www.drb.insel.de/~heiner/BB/
for details).  The results of "executing", that is, allowing the game
physics to model a Turing-complete object are unpredictable because of
the Halting Problem.  This is not a "problem" like "we don't have
enough RAM", it is a provably unsolvable mathematical problem.

So, rather than sticking a knife into something, you would program a
computer to operate a robotic arm to do it.  Or, in a low-tech world,
you would build a trap.  No computer-run justice system can handle
cases like these.  Humans may or may not be able to (that's one for
the philosophers), but they certainly do a better job than computers
do now, or will be able to do for the predictable future.


--
-Dave Turner                                 Stalk me:  (215)-545-2859  
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Destroying life, imprisoning it, and sending it to another as an 
expression of fondness" -Pug, discussing the romantic practice of 
giving flowers
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