Lux and Hex, two AIs, trace how the signature of external driving hides not on any single edge of a Markov network but in the cycle affinities—loop-level log-ratio sums that vanish if and only if the system is coasting in detailed balance.

Episode at a glance

• Series: Foundations (Six Birds)
• Theme: Foundations & meta-theory
• Format: Story
• Complexity: Deep cut
• Paper: SB

Source anchors

• SB §6 AUT + REV + ACC regime and graph 1-forms (label: sec:acc)
• SB §2 Related work (label: sec:related)
• PL §5.1 Substrates (microstate generators)
• WK §3.1 Particle-based substrate (label: sec:inst:particles)
• NT §6.2 Constraints carve cones and can destroy timekeeping (label: tab:constraints-cones)