From inert baseline to auditable life-like behavior
Applies the emergence calculus to life: starts from a calibrated zero, switches on drive, and tests for life-like properties across particle and neural substrates, with every claim backed by a matched control.
This paper applies the emergence calculus to the question "what makes something life-like?" It builds two concrete systems (a particle simulation and a neural network) and follows a strict discipline: first confirm that all measurements read zero when nothing is driven, then switch on energy input and show that life-like signals (maintenance, repair, pattern formation) rise above the baseline. Every claim comes with a side-by-side control, not rhetoric.
"To wake a stone" means taking a system from an inert, calibrated zero baseline to one that sustains directed behavior and pays maintenance costs, while carefully distinguishing real arrows of time from artifacts of scheduling.
- Ioannis Tsiokos
Start from a clean zero
Before claiming any life-like signal, first turn off all drive and scheduling. Confirm that every measurement reads approximately zero. This prevents false positives.
Drive separates cleanly from null
When the energy-input channel is switched on, measurements rise clearly above the zero baseline. This holds on both the particle and neural substrates.
Order effects are diagnostic, not proof
Changing the order of operations (protocol) visibly changes coarse statistics, but this alone does not prove a real arrow of time. That requires a separate directionality test.
Life-like competencies, bounded
Maintenance, repair, and higher-level pattern detection are demonstrated with explicit controls. No claim of autonomous open-ended evolution is made.
Audit-first loop
Zero baseline
Null calibration
With scheduling and energy drive both off, the system still moves but all directionality measurements read approximately zero. This is the clean baseline.
Directionality test
Audited drive channel
A controllable energy-input channel is switched on. Directionality measurements rise above zero under matched comparison with the null. This confirms the signal is real, not noise.
Lens extension
Refined lenses
Higher-level patterns (repeating motifs, stable vocabularies, decodable signals) are checked with explicit pass/fail gates and "shift the baseline" controls.
Highlighted results
Null regime validation
Both substrates (particle and neural) are calibrated so all directionality measurements hover near zero when drive is off. This rules out instrumentation artifacts.
Drive separability across substrates
Turning on the energy-input channel raises directionality measurements above the null baseline on both substrates, confirming the drive is a genuinely separate signal.
Protocol order effects are documented
Changing the scheduling order visibly shifts coarse statistics under matched comparison, but this is reported as a diagnostic, not treated as proof of an arrow of time.
Maintenance and higher-level structure
Repair, hazard response, stable pattern inventories, and intervention-based decoding all pass explicit pass/fail gates with matched controls.
Methods & reproducibility
Sanity checks
Media-ready
Both experiment repositories include deterministic scripts that regenerate the audit tables and summary figures. They are designed so journalists and readers can reproduce the reported checks end-to-end.
- Zero-baseline calibration and drive-vs-null separation checks
- Order-of-operations diagnostics under matched comparison
- Maintenance, hazard response, and higher-level pattern summaries
Limitations & scope
Resources
Read the paper (PDF)
Open access, 298 KB
DOI on Zenodo
10.5281/zenodo.18394536
Framework paper landing page
Six Birds: Foundations of Emergence Calculus
Neural substrate repo
Ratchet neural experiments + contracts
Particle substrate repo
Particle experiments + audit proxies
Access
Zenodo DOI record with public code repositories.
Citation
Ioannis Tsiokos (2026). To Wake a Stone with Six Birds: A Life is A Theory. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18394536
BibTeX
@misc{tsiokos2026wake,
title = {To Wake a Stone with Six Birds: A Life is A Theory},
author = {Tsiokos, Ioannis},
year = {2026},
publisher = {Zenodo},
doi = {10.5281/zenodo.18394536},
url = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18394536}
}Press & contact
For media inquiries, figures, or walkthroughs of the audit-first workflow, reach out directly.
Ioannis Tsiokos
ioannis@automorph.io
Corresponding author - Press contact