Let's play Zendo via forum!
Look near the end of this thread for the game in progress.
Rules of ZendoGuess the secret rule about which koans have the buddha nature.
A
koan is a nonempty finite string of letters A-Z. At the start of the game, the master thinks of a secret rule, then posts a white koan (that has the buddha nature) and a black koan (that
doesn't have the buddha nature).
To play, post some more koans, and/or guess what the rule is. The master will mark everybody's koans white or black, so everybody can get new information on what the secret rule might be. To answer your rule guesses, the master will post a counterexample koan whenever there exists a new koan that would be marked differently according to your rule and the master's rule.
There is no penalty for posting many koans or guessing often. Play as often as you like. Don't wait for the master to post, you can post right after other players. You can join running games on the fly!
Finer details of rulesThe secret rule defines a subset of the koanspace. The koanspace is the set of nonempty finite strings over the alphabet A-Z, so it cannot depend on post number, poster name, etc. It may depend on certain outside knowledge, such as level names, as long as an equivalent rule could be defined without outside knowledge: "AKHTBN iff it is one of the following finite list: JUSTDIG, ONLYFLOATERSMAYSURVIVETHIS, [...,] RENDEZVOUSATTHEMOUNTAIN."
To win, you must post an equivalent rule to the secret rule. Rules are equivalent iff for each koan, both rules mark it the same, i.e., there is no counterexample koan. You do not have to find the master's exact wording.
The null koan, i.e., the empty string, is customarily disallowed. The reason comes from the offline game: The empty koan would look like a stray marking stone on the table.
Background info-- Simon