125 The Battle for Gobwin Knob, Page 113

[fendrin]

The question still applies "Do stats determine the world, or do they represent it?" Its possible lifting between 6 kilo's and 12 kilo's is str 1, 12 to 18 is str 2, 18-24 is 3, and so on and so forth. Perhaps the stats are not perfect when it comes to ablities.

Indeed, we do not know just accurate the stats are. The same thing happens in our world.

A person in our world, for instance, might be said to have an 'Age' stat. A person's age stat might be 22, when in reality they are 22.35321456843 years old.

Or, looking at it from the other side, There are only 5 stats we have been told about. Four here and Loyalty. Do those 5 (4 if Loyalty doesn't really exist as a stat) really determine all capabilities of a unit? Which determines Bogroll's skill at smithing and cooking? Obviously there are things not represented by those stats.

For that matter, we are told that the Duty natural thinkamancy requires Commanders to 'use our own initiative in the service of the Ruler.' What stat controls initiative & creativity?

The world of Conway's Life Game (to take a famous example) is 100% discrete in time and space, and permits only extremely short-range effects (cells affect only their immediate neighbors), yet has been proven to be computationally complete.

I forgot about Conway's Life Game. Excellent example.