Phase space has routes, not one severity axis.
EXPANSION · MEAN PATH
Intact to fully scrambled. Mean slope -0.163 [-0.430, +0.092].
COMPACTIFICATION · MEAN PATH
Intact to fully scrambled. Mean slope -0.054 [-0.285, +0.196].
Only 10 / 234 expansion paths and 10 / 234 compactification paths fall monotonically. Phase amount is not developmental distance.
Three endpoints. Three different journeys.
The thin curves are the three independently generated but pathwise coherent endpoints; the thick curves are their means. Every point starts from the same intact map and moves toward one fixed scrambled endpoint while visible form, global channel balance, and donor–host pattern energy remain fixed.
Expansion weakens on average, but it can rebound at intermediate phase damage. Compactification is even more resilient and endpoint-dependent.
The hidden code sits inside a developmental basin.
ABSORPTION
Some large phase changes leave the donor-directed future substantially intact.
REROUTING
Other deformations with identical energy push the state into a different transient or terminal route.
AMPLIFICATION
Some partial scrambles increase the same donor-directed motion before later damage reduces it.
Expansion remains more phase-sensitive. Compactification remains more robust.
EXPANSION
Full phase destruction averages +0.095 [-0.184, +0.365], down -0.197 from intact.
COMPACTIFICATION
Full phase destruction still averages +0.389 [+0.154, +0.630], only -0.057 from intact.
The “two languages” split survives as a population tendency, not a universal per-organism law. The deeper law is that hidden syntax interacts with each organism’s basin geometry.
Map directions through phase space—not doses.
Generate a phase-direction atlas at one fixed energy: many independent deformations per organism, followed by active selection of the directions that maximally preserve, amplify, reverse, or redirect the future.
Then transplant those discovered directions across unrelated organisms. Shared successful directions would reveal a common morphogenetic vocabulary; family-specific directions would reveal individualized developmental memory.
The question is no longer “how much code is left?” It is “which way did we move in the code space?”