ANST - Forty Bored Heralds (long fluff)

[Mike C. Baker]

Humor alert.

---Tim McDaniel <tmcd at crl.com> wrote:
> On Mon, 5 Jan 1998, Mike C. Baker wrote:
> > > (Similarly, N different heralds can do a court N different ways,
> > > even if they say exactly the same words.)
> > ... but I must accuse you of over-simplifying your example. N
> > heralds can "do court" AT LEAST N!  (N-factorial) different ways,
> > and that only takes into account solo officiations and completely
> > neglects individual variation over time.
> (pedantic mathematical mode)
> I merely stated that N heralds can do a court N ways.  I did not
> specify an upper bound or an exact bound; it is only a lower bound.

Ah. An unstated assumption. It is well, friends, that we all
remember  that such might apply to MOST statements about expertise
and style in the context of our grand and glorious hobby.

> Daniel "The exact bound is an exercise for the student.  Oh, and
> please send me an algorithm to generate the 8*10**47 ways in which
> you assert 40 heralds at this year's Known World Heraldic Symposium
> could do a single court" de Lincoln

And I fall victim to not stating an upper bound for the
counter-assertion.

Firstly, I am (now) aware that     40! .GT. 8*(10**47)
My quick mental gyrations overstated the case, it appears, in that I
mentally was thinking of 10 or less heralds in the particular court
collective...

However, in defense of at least *approaching* that astronomical
figure for a major assembly of heraldically-inclined SCA folk, allow
me to expand upon my original premise (which should certainly
preserve validity for somewhat smaller values of N). 

My Premises: 
Scripted court of TRM
Variations will be considered non-trivial only if evident to audience
Certain variants may require special preparation or assistance
One award at each of the commonly-recognized stages on each
    of the usual "advancement tracks" (fighting, A&S, service, 
    with some fudge-factor): total of eighteen awards
Opening, closing, Crown's opening words, autocrat's words
Nothing required to be ad-libbed
Each individual herald performing solo introduces their own elements

-- variations in overall verbal presentation style, as previously
given in summary. Arbitrarily limit to 10 for example solution, with
understanding that *I* believe that count to be low.

-- read non-English-language scrolls in their original language,
translation optional. Adds three possible variations per scroll, but
will not always apply. Discount to one scroll out of eighteen.

-- Translate English court proceedings on-the-fly for visitors with
primary languages other than English. (Still follows script of this
hypothetical court, introduces 100+ variations FOR A SINGLE ELEMENT
OF THE COURT, without considering various combinations of
hypothetical ESL visitors. Lessee, just how many distinct dialects
of Chinese are there? This mental exercise could produce a VERY long
court....) For simplicity, handle this point United Nations-style
and arbitrarily choose to limit to a maximum of say 14 possible
translators on-hand.
(Arbitrary "shortlist": Latin, Esperanto, French, Russian, Mandarin,
Cantonese, Japanese, Spanish, Portugese, Arabic, Swahili, German,
Italian, Hindi)

-- vary the order of award presentation. 
"Fighting" 1 through 6, "A&S" 1 to 6, "Service" 1 to 6;
F1,A1,S1,F2,A2,S2,F3,...;
F6 - F1, A6 - A1, S6 - S1;
same sequence, but all award recipients stay at front to stand
witness to the next level of awards within "track" (and peers stay
for all);
etc.

-- vary the style of scroll presentation
scroll shown to populace before handing to Crown
scroll shown to populace after handing to Crown
scroll not shown to populace before given to individual

Quick estimated summation for shown variants:
(verbal style * (translated scroll + general translation + order +
exhibition)) multiplied by number of heralds  

    (10 * ( 3 + (14! + 1) + (18! * 2) + (18 * 3) ) ) * N >= 
     N * ( 1.28 * (10**17) ) 

Awright. Without extending for any of the OTHER possible factors,
and accepting some limitations that the original theoretical case
did not strictly require, my off-the-top estimation statement was
thoroughly off, by roughly 3 * 10**29 for N = 40.

Using just one of those possible extended factors (say, adjustments
to floor plan and/or mobility of the officiating herald), and
increasing the number of possible languages for translation to just
40 (which should cover a few outdated alternatives other than Latin,
some additional modern languages, and not include more than one or
two extra dialects) would exceed the original estimate by AT LEAST a
significant fraction of a factor of 10 for the postulated case of
N=40.

O estimable clerk Daniel, is this meager presentation sufficient for
the nature of your request for an algorithm?

===
Adieu -- Amra / Pax ... Kihe / TTFN -- Mike
(al-Sayyid) Amr ibn Majid al-Bakri al-Amra  /
Kihe Blackeagle (the Dreamsinger Bard) / 
Mike C. Baker: My opinions are my own -- no one else would want them!
Homepage: http://www.geocities.com/Area51/8661
Alt. e-mail: KiheBard at aol.com, MikeCBaker at aol.com

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