[MUD-Dev] Understanding Simulation (was: Point of View)

[Kwon J. Ekstrom]

Sasha Hart:

> On the same grounds, don't discount the fact that there are still
> animals after millions of years of inter- and intra-species
> gobbling, either. Or after thousands of years of man, or a number
> of decades of egregious pollution. Thus, if you are arguing that
> the real world is a demonstration that extinction is inevitable
> (perhaps for sufficiently realistic models), you also have given a
> demonstration that a single extinction isn't a terminal
> catastrophe

On the same grounds, don't discount that over the course of millions
of years that there have been an uncountable number of interactions
between an uncountable number of individual organisms from microbes
to the dinosaurs.  Not to mention an unknown number of environmental
factors.

There are simply too many factors to take into account for a true
simulation, in order to handle a reasonable amount of factors
certain inconsistencies arise.  These inconsistencies must be dealt
with by external factors either constant, random, or calculated.

> for everything in the whole world. Of course, in either case we
> have the advantage over nature that we can make the rules nearly
> however we want them.

Yes we can make our own rules to an extent except unlike nature we
have a single external factor which poses extreme threat to the
stability of any system.  A factor which is mostly unpredictable and
molds itself to any rules we may create...  Players

A "simulation" is not inherently instable, rather it's quite easy to
sustain a closed simulation.  However a MU* environment is not
closed.  Players are quite ravenous consumers and tend to produce
quite a bit less than they consume.  Even when given appropriate
tools for production.

Most negative feedback loops don't work on players since they can
simply "move on" either to another part of the realm or to another
server.

The question is not whether you can make a simulation that is
stable, it's whether you can make a simulation that is stable with a
completely external factor as ravanous and unpredictable as a hoard
of players.

The fact that humans co-exist with species in the real world is not
a valid argument because we aren't an external factor in the real
world.  Any decisions we make here we have to live with, we can't
just log off and ignore them.

-- Kwon J. Ekstrom


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