Zendo, play by forum

[mobius]

minimac is winner!

Not sure on blank answer though. I didn't know making a blank answer was possible, but you're right I guess.


I said the same thing about Mastermind yesterday on IRC  http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/laugh.gif" alt=":D" title="Laugh" class="smiley" /> . I love that game; but very challenging.

[Simon]

Very nice, I was merely considering single letters.

minimac may master the next game if he wishes.

The empty koan is customarily disallowed. Having some interest in set theory, disallowing the empty koan feels unnatural, but the offline game has a practical reason for it: The marked empty koan looks like a stray marking stone on the table.

Nonetheless, rules could always be evaluated for the empty koan. "The first letter has property E" evaluated for the empty koan, is false for any formula E. "All letters have property E" is true.

-- Simon

[Minim]

OK, let's start a new game. Examples are this time based on Welsh cities.

Initial white koan: NEWPORT (this follows the secret rule)
Initial black koan: CARDIFF (this doesn't follow the rule)

Post more koans or guesses about the rule.

[Clam]

CLAM
CCEXPLORE
GEOO
MINIMAC
INSANESTEVE

[Minim]

CLAM - white
CCEXPLORE - black
GEOO - white
MINIMAC - black
INSANESTEVE - black

[Simon]

CLAMPLORE
GEOOPLORE
CE
NWPRT

-- Simon

[Minim]

CLAMPLORE - black
GEOOPLORE - white
CE - white
NWPRT - white

[Clam]

CLAMCLAM
GEOOGEOO
CCEXCLAM
CCEXGEOO

[Clam]

Throwing out a guess because it's night where minimac is (I think):

AKHTBN iff it contains at most four letters (not necessarily distinct) from the first half of the alphabet.

[Minim]

Good guess; I'm afraid it was not the rule I was looking for, here are some more koans.

CLAMCLAM - black
GEOOGEOO - black
CCEXCLAM - black
CCEXGEOO - black

[Simon]

I guess that AKHTBN iff each consonant appears at most once in the koan.

STUPOR
RIDDLE
RIPPLE
PHILIPPINES
THEQUICKBROWNFOXJUMPS

-- Simon

[Minim]

Absolutely correct! As for the koans...

STUPOR - White
RIDDLE - Black
RIPPLE - Black
PHILIPPINES - Black
THEQUICKBROWNFOXJUMPS - White http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/laugh.gif" alt=":D" title="Laugh" class="smiley" />

[Simon]

Alright, good one. :-) New game:

BROWN - white
BLACK - black

-- Simon

[Simon]

From IRC:

WURST - black
BLAC - black
BLA - black
WHITE - black
BROWNBROWN - black
NWORB - black
RBWON - black
OWNB - black

BROW - white
BRO - white
BR - white
B - white
BL - white
BROWNROWNROWN - white
XYZ - white
AXYZ - white
A - white
AX - white
X - white

-- Simon

[mobius]

a koan has the buddha nature if and only if the letters in it go from left to right; in Alphabetic order

guesses:

YUTS
ZOON
LIGED
FEUTI
LIKELIKE
LIKELIKELIKE