Learning paths
Understanding feedback
Trace the delay between an action and its consequences before adjusting the correction.
About 25 minutes. Begin with the first stop; pause and repeat experiments as needed.
Follow the steering circuit and identify its sensor, target and action.
Starting point.
Change a reinforcing connection and observe whether growth persists.
Uses: Feedback and control.
Pin an orders-only baseline, increase supply-line attention, and compare costs.
Uses: Reinforcing loops.
Keep the action repertoire fixed and reduce what the regulator can observe.
Uses: Delayed correction.
Coordinating across differences
Separate differences in judgement from failures to hand over usable information.
About 30 minutes. Begin with the first stop; pause and repeat experiments as needed.
Send the same event to each system and inspect the disclosed coding rules.
Starting point.
Vary who sets the standard and inspect each community’s adaptation cost.
Uses: Different codes.
Change the available shared vocabulary and watch successful exchanges.
Uses: Shared objects.
How collective patterns emerge
Follow the local decisions that accumulate into a collective pattern.
About 30 minutes. Begin with the first stop; pause and repeat experiments as needed.
Compare equal mobility with a constrained group using the same starting grid.
Starting point.
Change the distribution of thresholds and observe where a cascade stops.
Uses: Moving and sorting.
Predict how revealing private evidence changes accuracy, then run a batch.
Uses: Thresholds.
Compare public compliance with private support after making dissent visible.
Uses: Public and private evidence.
Changing a persistent norm
Compare private preference, public behaviour and beliefs about other people.
About 20 minutes. Begin with the first stop; pause and repeat experiments as needed.
Increase truthful disclosure while holding conformity pressure fixed.
Starting point.
Change signal decay and inspect when the collective switch occurs.
Uses: Beliefs about the group.
Propose a quota and monitoring rule, hold a vote, then revise it after observing the harvest.
Uses: Collective thresholds.