Subject: ackanomic Digest V4 #283
From: [email-masked]
To: ackanomic digest users <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1999 00:00:01 -0400 (EDT)

ackanomic Digest	Tuesday, October 19 1999	Volume: 04  Issue: 283

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From: [email-masked] (John Bollinger)
Subject: Acka: Martial Law
Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1999 14:24:55 -0400 (EDT)

Ackans of all creeds:

I am about to perform some actions that may be of interest to players of
both Ackanomics.  In fact, I am going to perform actions in both nomics,
to the extent that there is any distinction during the process.  For
convenience, I have tagged each section with a label that will help
identify the nomic to which it most directly pertains.

The gist is that I am going to cause Fat-Acka's game state to become part
of Acka-Lite's, in a way which permits me to modify it.  Normally one
would expect the players of another nomic to just ignore something like
this, but Fat-Acka's rule 17-2-6-1 makes Acka-Lite's rules part of the
Fat-Ackan rule set as 17-2-6-1-*.  Although 17-2-6-1 prevents its
descendants from modifying non-descendants, my construction -- I claim --
makes all of Fat-Acka's rules descendants of 17-2-6-1.  Fat-Acka cannot
ignore its own rules; nor, in this case, can it ignore Acka-Lite's.

The rest should be apparent, but I will state for the record that although
I don't clean up the hook that I [think I] put into the Fat-Ackan rules,
I do not intend to make any further use of it.  Fat Acka can remove it if it
wishes, by the normal means.

[Acka-Lite]

I create a rule on the Harfy Sphere named "Loop: see Infinite Loop", numbered
H42, and having the following ROOTACCESS-delimited text:

ROOTACCESS

The next Sphere outside the Harfy Sphere is the Fat Sphere.  The entire
game state of Fat-Acka is on the Fat Sphere.  Fat-Ackan rules are rules
on the Fat Sphere.  Rules on the Fat Sphere are rules of Fat-Acka.

References in Fat Sphere rules to "Acka-Lite" shall be interpreted as
references to Ackanomic.  References in Fat-Sphere rules to "Ackanomic"
shall be interpreted as references to Fat-Acka.

The rule numbering system mandated by the Fat-Ackan rules designates
acceptable aliases for the Ackanomic rule numbers of those rules.  To
distinguish between the actual Ackanomic rule numbers and the aliases,
the aliases should be designated FA rather than just F.  Thus if 27 is
the numeric portion of ithe Ackanomic rule number of that rule which
is numbered 1-10 according to the Fat-Acka game state, then FA1-10 is
an alias for F27 when specifying Fat Sphere rule numbers.

ThinMan may alter anything on the Fat Sphere at his whim.

ROOTACCESS

---

[Fat-Acka]

I modify rule FA1-10 by replacing "An H number consists of a string of
positive integers separated by hyphens" with "An H number consists of a
string of non-negative integers separated by hyphens."

---

[Fat-Acka]

I create a new rule on the Fat Sphere, numbered F0, named "Invasion", and
with the following NAPOLEON-delimited text:

NAPOLEON

{{ This rule is renumbered to 0. }}

This nomic has been conquered by the forces of Lite, under the command of
General ThinMan.  Ackanomic praises ThinMan's military prowess and ability
to pull off a scam in Ackanomic when not even an active player.

That natural person who had the Ackanomic name ThinMan at the time of this
rule's creation may change Ackanomic's game state, including the rules, in
any way whatsoever, by sending a message specifying the change(s) to the
official mailing list.

NAPOLEON

---

[Fat-Acka]

I amend rule FA17-2-6-1 by appending the following SWITCHEROO-delimited text:

SWITCHEROO
  {{ This rule is renumbered to 42.  Rule 17-2-6 is repealed.  This rule is
     renumbered to 17-2-6. }}
SWITCHEROO

---

[Fat-Acka]

I create a new rule on the Fat Sphere, numbered F17261, named "Terms of
Surrendur to Acka-Lite", with the following MAKELOVENOTWAR-delimited text:

MAKELOVENOTWAR

{{ This rule is renumbered to 17-2-6-1. }}

The forces of Lite have prevailed -- Ackanomic has surrendured to Acka-Lite.
Ackanomic shall never again make war on Acka-Lite.  Ackanomic shall remain
a protectorate of Acka-Lite until such time as ThinMan, the military
governor, sees fit to grant it independance.

And while we're at it, Ackanomic surrendurs to Canada, too.
MAKELOVENOTWAR

---

[Fat-Acka]

I create a new rule on the Fat Sphere, numbered F134, named "ThinMan the
Conqueror" with the following CONAN-delimited text:

CONAN
ThinMan once conquered and ruled Ackanomic while not even an active player.
The player or natural person who is legally able to assume the name "ThinMan"
is the Former Military Governor of Ackanomic.
CONAN

---

[Acka-Lite]

I repeal rule H42.

---

[Acka-Lite]

I create a new rule on the Harfy Sphere, numbered H43, and entitled "Exit
Strategy" with the following NOBOSNIA-delimited text:

NOBOSNIA
Every element of the game state, other than Spheres, that is on a Sphere
outside the Harfy Sphere and on no other Sphere is sucked into a wormhole
and removed from the Ackanomic game state; this rule is repealed immediately
thereafter. 
NOBOSNIA

---

Signed,

ThinMan
General of the Forces of Lite
Military Governor of Fat-Acka

------------------------------

From: JT <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Martial Law
Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1999 15:08:49 -0400 (EDT)

On Tue, 19 Oct 1999, John Bollinger wrote:
> I am about to perform some actions that may be of interest to players of
> both Ackanomics.  In fact, I am going to perform actions in both nomics,
> to the extent that there is any distinction during the process.  For
> convenience, I have tagged each section with a label that will help
> identify the nomic to which it most directly pertains.

I applaud General ThinMan for taking the time and effort to implement what
I saw as a potential loophole but had not thought about sufficiently to
exploit!

--JT

-- 
[-------------------------------------------------------------------------]
[ Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty.                  ]
[ It's hard to seize the day when you must first grapple with the morning ]
[-------------------------------------------------------------------------]

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From: [email-masked] (John Bollinger)
Subject: Re: Acka: Martial Law
Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1999 18:31:05 -0400 (EDT)

Dragon Mage wrote:

>I applaud General ThinMan for taking the time and effort to implement what
>I saw as a potential loophole but had not thought about sufficiently to
>exploit!

Thank you.  I had plenty of time to think about it while mowing my yard
last Saturday.  :-)  We'll see whether it stands up in Fat-Acka.  I think
it should, but Ackanomic has surprised me before.  I have been thinking
about doing it ever since I saw K 2's "I AM that Nomic" proposals.
Originally just the infinite recursion was amusing to me, but then I
realized that I could use it to get around the security in Fat-Acka.  The
Spheres rule gave me the tools to (1) make the scam go through quickly and
without assistance; (2) seperate out the two game states after it was over;
and (3) protect Acka-Lite from possible fallout.  The fallout aspect was
enough of a concern that I decided to keep the duration of the whole thing
very short in addition to the other precautions.

ThinMan
General of the Forces of Lite
Military Governor of Fat-Acka

------------------------------

From: Henry Towsner <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Martial Law
Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1999 18:41:47 -0400 (EDT)

	Unfortunately, by my analysis, this won't work.  The problem 
is that 17-2-6-1, the rule making Acka-Lite's ruleset its descendent, 
specifies that the ruleset of Acka-Lite makes up its descendents. 
Rule 1-10, however, defines a descendent of a rule.  This worked 
(awkwardly) until Prop 64 in Acka-Lite changed Acka-Lite's rule 
numbering system so that each rule contains a string followed by an 
integer.  This violates rule 1-10, which defines rule numbers as 
being only chains of integers.  Therefore, by Fat Acka's rules, 
proposal 64 failed to take effect (since it renumbered rules to an 
illegal format without sufficient precedence).  Thus, Fat Acka does 
not recognize the existence of the harfy sphere, with the appropriate 
consequence's for General ThinMan's scam.

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From: Randy Hall <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Martial Law
Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1999 18:44:24 -0400 (EDT)

All hail His Excellency the Former Military Governor of Ackanomic!

George
Shubbery
Master of Spheres

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End of ackanomic Digest V4 #283
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