At q32, the right instruction must meet the right body.
The q32 body expands specifically under the q32-derived direction. The q12 and q48 directions miss. This is not generic susceptibility; it is an age-matched resonance between body and hidden direction.
q12 direction → q32 body
No direction-specific geometric response.
q32 direction → q32 body
The matched causal address is readable.
q48 direction → q32 body
The later direction also misses.
By q48, the body answers by splitting.
All three direction ages make the native order produce more connected components in the q48 body. The phase-scrambled order control stays near zero. The mature response is broad across direction ages and sharply expressed in topology.
Native topology
Every family moves in the same direction.
Scrambled topology
Equal pulse energy without the native information geometry does not reproduce it.
Direction specificity
The native effect exceeds the orthogonal order response.
The response did not vanish at commitment. It changed output channel: from an age-specific instruction for expansion into a more general instruction for fragmentation and connected-body topology.
native · cancel first
native · amplify first
scrambled · cancel first
scrambled · amplify first
native · cancel first
native · amplify first
scrambled · cancel first
scrambled · amplify first
Mechanically selected organism radiant-entity-0865: closest joint match to the cohort’s q32 local-resonance and q48 topological-response means. Shown at release +32; not hand-picked for visual drama.
The extra topology survives beyond the first response window.
The immediate mature component response is +0.467. It remains +0.275 through the later release window and +0.339 across the full 96-step future.
Developmental amplification
q48 minus q32 immediate topological response, averaged over direction ages.
Native-specific amplification
The age increase is itself stronger than the scrambled control.
A smaller signed radius response also remains at q48 when the three direction ages are pooled: +0.030 [+0.010, +0.050]. The result is therefore not a mutually exclusive radius-versus-topology switch; it is a pronounced developmental reweighting toward topology.
Flow Lenia has developmental causal semantics.
Addressed causation
At q32, effect depends on matching the developmental age of the body and the hidden direction.
Decoder maturation
At q48, the body generalizes across direction ages and increasingly converts order into topology.
Persistent consequence
The mature component response remains visible over the full post-intervention future.
The information direction is not a scalar “more emergence” knob. It behaves more like a message whose meaning depends on the developmental state of the receiver.
The next swing is no longer “does it make more components?” We need to watch the components as entities. Are these persistent daughters that move apart, carry different founder identities, and continue independently—or are they merely transient necks in one body?