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Soup, Sparks, and Their Update Rules

Companion to Coherence Dynamics Circa 1890

This is not a controlled comparison of electrochemical and digital substrates. The two panels begin with different equations: the oscillator model has coupling, while the binary grid flips independently until a hidden-field coupling rule is added. The simulation shows what those rules do; it cannot decide consciousness or substrate equivalence.
This is a comparison of update rules, not a matched substrate experiment. A receives a Kuramoto coupling term; B either receives a diffusive hidden-field rule or independent random flips. The display does not test consciousness, biological superiority, or whether one implementation is more “real” than another.
A: Soup
0.5

The coupling term is explicit in A's update equation.

B: Sparks
0.0

No coupling rule: switches flip independently. Add the hidden-field rule →

Challenge: Manual Control Under Unequal Rules

Can you manually coordinate B while A syncs automatically? Click Start to find out.

A ↔ B0.0

A and B are independent. Add cross-coupling to link them →

A evolves with coupling.B follows independent random-flip rules.Try adding a hidden field to B →

Left: The “Soup”

Coupled oscillators (Kuramoto model). Each oscillator has its own natural frequency, but through coupling, they spontaneously synchronize.

No central controller assigns individual phases. Synchronization can emerge from the Kuramoto coupling term that the model explicitly gives this panel.

Right: The “Sparks”

Binary switches whose default update rule applies independent random flips. With the hidden-field control enabled, a continuous diffusive state couples their updates.

This panel can coordinate either through the authored hidden-field rule or through manual clicks. A digital implementation could also implement local coupling directly; the toy does not compare optimized hardware, energy, latency, or noise tolerance.

The Actual Difference in This Code

Increase coupling on the left and watch synchronization emerge under A's coupled differential equation.

B defaults to independent random flips, so it lacks an analogous coupling mechanism by construction. Adding the hidden field changes that. The defensible comparison concerns implementation-specific interventions and resource costs, not “faking” versus “being.”

Block's Question Remains Empirical

Electrochemistry plausibly offers reconfiguration, multiscale memory, amplification, and many context-sensitive control variables. Whether those features provide a task-level advantage over an engineered alternative must be tested with matched capabilities, interventions, energy, latency, and error tolerance. Effective dimensionality alone is neither an answer to Block's consciousness question nor a consciousness measure.