One instruction. A finite window in which the body understands it.
At q12, q16, q24, and q32, “cancel first, amplify last” leaves a larger immediate body than the opposite zero-net order. The same comparison becomes directionless at q48 and q64.
q12
The original order-sensitive state reproduces in a ninth fresh cohort.
q32
The same early direction remains fully legible twenty steps later.
q48
The signed radius response has collapsed.
The state still moves. Its meaning has changed.
Between q32 and q48, the signed body response falls by 0.055. But the raw separation of the two resulting fields changes by only 0.0038 Hellinger units.
The mature system is not simply harder to perturb. It is less susceptible along this developmental meaning. The same hidden direction ceases to be translated into expansion.
A median-pattern organism (radiant-blob-1453), selected mechanically as closest to the cohort’s q32 and q48 immediate effects—not selected for visual drama.
The boundary is a population pattern, not one spectacular creature.
Thirteen of sixteen families have a stronger response in the q12–q32 interval than at q48–q64. The exact age profile varies, but the collapse is distributed across the cohort.
A coordinated body program, not extra growth.
At q32, the cancel-first history produces a wider and more occupied body with fewer components. Total mass is unchanged. The intervention changes organization, not fuel.
Expansion
Occupancy also rises: +0.00096 [+0.00022, +0.00172].
Consolidation
Log mass remains near zero: +0.00097 [-0.00256, +0.00428].
The early Φ-R direction behaves like an instruction for coordinated morphogenesis: how far to spread, how densely to occupy space, and whether to stay consolidated.
The response may change language rather than vanish completely.
At q64 there is no radius order effect. But cancel-first leaves a smaller largest-component share, and the native-vs-orthogonal component-count response is positive. Late development may retain a weaker topological reading after geometric control closes.
No size control
Radius is evenly split across families.
Fragment share
The largest connected body holds less of the mass.
Native topology
Component response exceeds the orthogonal order control.
This late topological afterlife was discovered in the full pre-specified metric panel. It is the next mechanism to attack, not a replacement for the clean geometric commitment result.
Development has a changing causal vocabulary.
Plastic interval
Through q32, the early information direction has consistent signed control over body geometry.
Commitment boundary
Between q32 and q48, that geometric interpretation closes even though state divergence remains large.
Readout migration
By q64, residual causal sensitivity appears in topology rather than radius.
This is closer to organismal development than a generic perturbation response. The same cause means one thing early, stops meaning it at commitment, and may be reinterpreted later.
The next direct swing is obvious: densely scan q32→q48 and transplant the state of susceptibility itself. Can an early body make a q48 body listen again—and can a q48 hidden organization prematurely close a q32 body?