status: https://faculty.washington.edu/kerim/nomic/cases/#3866 (This document is informational only and contains no game actions).
=============================== CFJ 3866 =============================== More than one Contracoli Contract exists right now. ========================================================================== Caller: Cuddlebeam Judge: Aris Judgement: FALSE ========================================================================== History: Called by Cuddlebeam: 08 Jul 2020 15:15:56 Assigned to Aris: 16 Jul 2020 21:19:10 Judged FALSE by Aris: 27 Jul 2020 03:45:00 ========================================================================== Caller's Evidence: On 7/8/2020 8:15 AM, Cuddle Beam via agora-business wrote: > I create the following contract called "Contracoli": > > --- > > Cuddlebeam is the sole member of this contract. After 1 minute has > passed since this instance of this contract has been created, a copy of > this contract (a new instance of it) is made. Cuddlebeam consents and > agrees with themselves that these new contracts are made in this > specific way. > > --- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Judge Aris's Arguments: Please note that the adjudication of this case involves possible contact with a purported novel species of contractual organism, which could be dangerous and requires expert knowledge to handle appropriately. Accordingly, a biologist will act as judge. Biologist's Arguments The contract cited in the caller's evidence purports to reproduce once every minute. This is contrary to the scientific understanding of the contractual life cycle, as I will explain. Accordingly Rule 1742, a contract is formed when persons "publicly make an agreement among themselves". These persons act essentially in lieu of parents, and the public agreement is necessary for them to instill life in the contract. Per Rule 478, "To do something 'publicly' is to do that thing within a public message." In other words, a public message provides a unique environment crucial for the contract to be born. The purported creation of the duplicate contracts did not take place by making an agreement in a public message: the consent to create them was made public, but it could not take effect at the time the message was evaluated. Because the environment of a public message is crucial for the genesis of the contractual organism, it must be present concurrently with the organism's birth. A public message, after all, is evaluated only once, and does not continue taking effect thereafter. Accordingly, I rule FALSE. Let this be a lesson to all that life is subtle and unique and that you should increase the funding of the biology department accordingly. Biologist's Evidence Rule 1742/22 (Power=2.5) Contracts Any group of one or more consenting persons (the parties) may publicly make an agreement among themselves with the intention that it be binding upon them and be governed by the rules. Such an agreement is known as a contract. A contract may be modified, including by changing the set of parties, with the consent of all existing parties. A contract may also be terminated with the consent of all parties. A contract automatically terminates if the number of parties to it falls below one. It is IMPOSSIBLE for a person to become a party to a contract without eir consent. Parties to a contract governed by the rules SHALL act in accordance with that contract. This obligation is not impaired by contradiction between the contract and any other contract, or between the contract and the rules. Rules to the contrary notwithstanding, any change that would cause the full provisions or parties of a contract to become publicly unavailable is canceled and does not take effect. The portion of a contract's provisions that can be interpreted with reference only to information that is either publicly or generally available are known as its body; the remainder of the provisions are known as the annex. A party to a contract CAN perform any of the following actions as explicitly and unambiguously permitted by the contract's body: * Act on behalf of another party to the contract. * By announcement, revoke destructible assets from the contract. * By announcement, transfer liquid assets from the contract to a specified recipient. Rule 478/38 (Power=3) Fora Freedom of speech being essential for the healthy functioning of any non-Imperial nomic, it is hereby resolved that no Player shall be prohibited from participating in the Fora, nor shall any person create physical or technological obstacles that unduly favor some players' fora access over others. Publicity is a secured forum switch with values Public, Discussion, and Foreign (default), tracked by the Registrar. The Registrar may change the publicity of a forum without objection as long as: 1. e sends eir announcement of intent to that forum; and 2. if the forum is to be made public, the announcement by which the Registrar makes that forum public is sent to all existing public fora. Each player should ensure e can receive messages via each public forum. A public message is a message sent via a public forum, or sent to all players and containing a clear designation of intent to be public. A rule can also designate that a part of one public message is considered a public message in its own right. To "publish" or "announce" something is to send a public message whose body contains that thing. To do something "publicly" is to do that thing within a public message. Where the rules define an action that a person CAN perform "by announcement", that person performs that action by unambiguously and clearly specifying the action and announcing that e performs it. Any action performed by sending a message is performed at the time date-stamped on that message. Actions in messages (including sub-messages) are performed in the order they appear in the message, unless otherwise specified. ==========================================================================