31 mature bodies · five doses · native and orthogonal order controls

Dose chooses
the body's answer.

We applied the same q48 information direction with the same zero-net structure, changing only its size. The body did not answer “more” or “less.” At half dose it rewired its surface topology. At high dose it expanded.

+0.408surface microcomponent specificity at 0.5×
-0.892dense-core response at the same dose: opposite sign
+0.090direction-specific immediate radius response at 2×
8/8family groups with positive 2× radius specificity
01 / One direction, two response regimes

The dose curve branches.

The surface-topology response peaks sharply at 0.5×, then fades and reverses by 4×. Radius does almost the opposite: it is weak at 0.5× and becomes clean at 2–4×. The same perturbation direction is decoded differently at different amplitudes.

surface topology+0.50+0.00-0.50body radius+0.15+0.10+0.05+0.00-0.050.25×0.5×1.0×2.0×4.0×dose in natural units · each point is the native direction-specific contrast

Topological resonance

+0.408 [+0.168, +0.665]

Seven of eight family groups show the mid-density surface response at 0.5×.

High-dose expansion

+0.090 [+0.048, +0.138]

All eight groups expand direction-specifically at 2×.

Regime separation

+0.076 [+0.034, +0.123]

Mean high-dose radius specificity minus the 0.5× response; positive in every group.

Flow Lenia body for 0.5× · cancel first
0.5× · cancel first
release +32
Flow Lenia body for 0.5× · amplify first
0.5× · amplify first
release +32
Flow Lenia body for 4× · cancel first
4× · cancel first
release +32
Flow Lenia body for 4× · amplify first
4× · amplify first
release +32

A fixed, non-selected illustration: source 01 under the four native histories at release +32. The quantitative result comes from all 31 organisms and all histories, not from these frames.

02 / What half dose does

The surface frays while the core consolidates.

At the 13/255 surface band, native order produces more microcomponents. At the denser 51/255 core, the sign flips. The difference between those layers is +1.299 [+0.430, +2.194].

-1.5-1.0-0.5+0.0+0.5mid-density surfacedense core

Half dose is not just a weaker push. It hits a topological resonance: one shell becomes more fragmented while the denser body becomes more connected.

03 / What high dose does

The body expands without becoming heavier.

At 2×, immediate radius specificity is +0.090; at 4× it is +0.084. The matching log-mass contrasts are -0.0045 and +0.0003—effectively flat.

0.5×

surface topology

The causal response concentrates in connectivity across density shells.

2–4×

body geometry

The response is routed into spatial expansion rather than mass accumulation.

This is the crucial change in picture: information geometry is not merely pushing a scalar phenotype. It is selecting which physical channel the organism uses to answer.

04 / Daughter-like dynamics

Half dose stabilizes an episode; it does not trigger fission.

Time in ≥5% daughter state

+0.0260 [+0.0065, +0.0482]

The native direction-specific order adds about 2.6 percentage points of active-frame time.

Longest episode

+0.802 [+0.198, +1.490]

Cancel-first extends an existing daughter-like episode by roughly 0.8 sampled frames.

Incidence

-0.135 [-0.229, -0.031]

It does not create more ≥5%-mass daughters. The intervention changes persistence, not entry.

The nearest fission-like consequence is temporal: half dose can hold a separated state open a little longer. The creation of a macroscopic daughter remains governed by something else.

05 / The next direct swing

Can one response regime prime the other?

Now we can ask a genuinely causal memory question with equal total dose: apply 0.5× then 4×, or 4× then 0.5×. The energy is identical. Only order changes.

0.5 → 4

First open the surface-topology regime, then drive expansion. Does the body remain topologically susceptible—or does the second pulse convert it?

4 → 0.5

First expand the body, then apply the topological dose. Does expansion erase, amplify, or redirect the later shell response?

If the two orders diverge, the body has a history-dependent decoder: its present response depends on what causal regime it has already inhabited.