Rules of the Game

“…the people will exact of their king or priest a strict conformity to those rules, the observance of which is necessary for his own preservation, and consequently for the preservation of his people and the world.”

             — James Frazer, The Golden Bough, Vol 1 (1890)

“The only way to learn the rules of this Game of games is to take the usual prescribed course, which requires many years; and none of the initiates could ever possibly have any interest in making these rules easier to learn.”

   — Herman Hesse, The Glass Bead Game, (1943)

“If the rules of mathematics are the rules of grammar, there is no stupidity involved when we fail to see that a mathematical truth is obvious. The rules of ordinary grammar are not obvious ... They are conveniences without whose aid truths about the sorts of things in the world cannot be communicated from one person to another.”

                                                — Lancelot Hogben, Mathematics for the Million, (1936)

Every theory, model, law, institution, behavior, strategy, tactic, and decision is made within a framework of rules. Rules provide both prescriptions and descriptions for admissible behaviors. From murder to multiplication, from metaphysics to music, rules provide the foundations for order and the baseline against which rule-breaking is deemed either creative or criminal. In the physical universe, rules are described as laws and treated as unchanging. In the biological world, rules evolve, giving rise to nervous systems, competition, cooperation, and sociality. In society, rules constrain behavior through law, regulate most forms of exchange, and coordinate patterns of play. Where do rules come from? How many rules does each domain require to balance the certainty necessary for skill and the excess certainty stifling creativity. How are rules broken and thereafter rebuilt more economically or perhaps more often left in ruins? Is there a theory of rules that might connect mathematics, games, sport, and culture? In this Symposium we are analyzing the larger world of rule systems. Exploring the complexity science of constraints, algorithms, policies, and regulations, all of which allow for the “preservation of people and the world” and promote the “communication of truths”. And asking when the world is no longer the one we want and the truths no longer compatible with the evidence. How then might we discover and create new rule systems compatible with our new reality and the full expression of life?