Flow Lenia · first measurable action world · q8→q32

Plasticity is there from the start.

At q8—the earliest two-pulse state we can measure—the later causal futures are already more separated than at q32.

The early visible states remain close. Their futures do not. Over the next 24 passages, morphology separates while freedom over the timing of formation contracts.

The q8 result

Small present. Huge future.

At the first measurable age, history moves the later future 4.3 times farther than it moves the present state.

0.378q8 history-conditioned causal-future displacement.

0.088the corresponding displacement between the q8 release states themselves.

9.9passage range in the later formation event across four q8 routes.

The early state is a compact causal seed: visually modest differences fan out into different bodies and different formation times.

Causal future

The future map is strongest at q8.

q8 already carries 104.4% of the q32 history separation. The curve decreases slightly through q24, then stays flat.

q16 minus q8 is -0.007, 95% interval -0.014 to -0.001. q24 minus q16 is -0.008. The map is not assembling upward over this interval; it is already broad and begins to consolidate.

Present state

The body geometry catches up.

Direct state separation grows at every step: 0.088 at q8, 0.105 at q16, 0.116 at q24, 0.124 at q32. Every adjacent mean increase is positive.

q8: future ≫ present
q32: future still broad, present more deeply folded

Timing plasticity

Early history can move formation by ten passages.

The range across four information routes starts at 9.9 passages and falls to 4.8 by q32. Both matched ending levels separately show large q8 timing effects: 5.0 and 6.5 passages.

All 39 organisms had a nonzero four-route timing range at q8. By q32 the mean range is less than half as large.

Four q8 presents

They look nearly the same.

These score-matched q8 states come from the same organism and differ only in two early information-directed pulses. The cohort median final Φ‑R mismatch was 3.9% of the local score range.

High · hold q8 state — **High · hold**q8

High · loop q8 state — **High · loop**q8

One shared challenge

Their futures do not.

Give all four states the same c04 challenge and run to q900. The early route has changed which later body is reached. Across 39 organisms, the mean matched-history future separation is 0.378.

High · hold c04 future — **High · hold**same c04 · q900

High · loop c04 future — **High · loop**same c04 · q900

Low · hold c04 future — **Low · hold**same c04 · q900

Low · loop c04 future — **Low · loop**same c04 · q900

The picture now

Causal-first development begins immediately.

At q8

Broad causal futures. Extreme local twisting. Maximum leverage over formation time.

By q32

The future map remains broad. Morphology has separated more strongly. Timing freedom has contracted.

The early ecology is not waiting to acquire causal structure. It starts as a highly plastic, history-sensitive seed and progressively commits that multiplicity into form.

The necessary next control

Is this structure—or generic soup sensitivity?

q8 is now the floor of the assay. The next clean comparison is not another earlier time point. It is a matched initialization control: preserve genotype, total mass, and composition, but spatially rearrange the organized seed.

If q8 future remapping survives scrambling unchanged, we are measuring generic perturbation sensitivity. If organized seeds show stronger, more coherent, or more body-specific future maps, then the action world is carried by early organization itself. That is the direct bridge to causal emergence.