Re: Are the number of variants to chess of Aleph nature or not?

Ed Murphy <emurphy42@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> David Richerby wrote:
>> Quadibloc <jsavard@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>> The number of practical variants of chess that real humans can
>>> play is strictly finite
>> 
>> Trivially: we only have a finite universe in which to store the
>> rules.
>
> Counterargument: infinite sets of variants can be encoded in a
> finite description (e.g. arbitrary board length, as mentioned
> earlier).

Yes but, in order to play a game, we need to know which of those
variants we are playing.  We only have a finite universe in which to
store either an explicit presentation of the rules or the parameters
that generate them from your finite description.


Dave.

-- 
David Richerby                             Carnivorous ****table Composer
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