Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
Path: gmd.de!xlink.net!howland.reston.ans.net!cs.utexas.edu!wupost!waikato!comp.vuw.ac.nz!canterbury.ac.nz!huia!greg
From: greg@huia.canterbury.ac.nz (Greg Ewing)
Subject: Re: I.F. Realities (was Re: More rambling)
Message-ID: <CGpK1L.JLp@cantua.canterbury.ac.nz>
Nntp-Posting-Host: huia.canterbury.ac.nz
Reply-To: greg@huia.canterbury.ac.nz (Greg Ewing)
Organization: University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
References:  <CGpFxt.JoB.2@cs.cmu.edu>
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1993 22:05:45 GMT
Lines: 27

In article <CGpFxt.JoB.2@cs.cmu.edu>, pww+@A.GP.CS.CMU.EDU (Peter
Weyhrauch) writes:
|> If we can find a life-like reality that is both rich enough to support
|> interactive fiction and simple enough to be understood by the
|> computer, we will have discovered a world in which we can build
|> literary quality interactive fiction.

You seem to be asking for a world with a mathematically precise
description. You need that much precision if you want a computer
simulation of it that is demonstrably complete and consistent.

You also want this world to qualify for "interactive fiction".
What I was trying to point out is that there is no correspondingly
precise definition of "interactive fiction". So while the question
of whether a given world is completely simulable is a crisp
one, whether it constitutes "interactive fiction" is fuzzy.

|> So, I ask you all again, what is this world?

There's no one such world - there's a whole lot of them of
varying degrees of complexity, and different people will have
different opinions about whether they are IF.

Greg Ewing, Computer Science Dept, +--------------------------------------+
University of Canterbury,	   | A citizen of NewZealandCorp, a	  |
Christchurch, New Zealand	   | wholly-owned subsidiary of Japan Inc.|
greg@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz	   +--------------------------------------+
