On 8/1/2011 6:53 AM, Ryan Hackel wrote: > Since we're on the subject of the Spock Rule, I have a question from a recent session that I've been meaning to bring up. > > The rule was "A koan has the Buddha Nature if the first letter of each color in a stack of pyramids, read from top to bottom, spells out a legit Scrabble-acceptable word." For example, a stack of pyramids with a "B"lue on top of an "O"range on top of a "G"reen spells "BOG" and thus has the Buddha Nature, while a stack of Red-Purple-Yellow spells 'RPY" and lacks the Buddha Nature. > > Our cunning master argued that the BH was a function of the pyramids alone, independent of other things, and met the Spock Rule. I countered, saying that it falsely assumed that Spock can spell in the English language. (We also argued about whether purple also counted as violet.) > I would say it violates the Spock rule: 1) There is no guarantee that Spock speaks English or spells things the same way as the master; 2) As you say, there is no guarantee that all players will use the same word to describe the colour; and 3) Everything then points to a Scrabble dictionary, and people have widely diverse vocabularies. The idea is the rule should be solvable by any person speaking any language or even who sees colours in different spectrums. The rule should still hold from their perspective (even though it would have to be translated for the master). Aaron