COMMUNITY-LEVEL IDENTITY PERSISTENCE HYPOTHESIS
L3 shows stable hierarchies in N=3-5 groups (TR_range ~0.3-0.5). L4 shows self-repair — groups maintain structure after perturbation.
KEY QUESTION: Can two stable groups interact without collapsing into a single group? This is the FIRST L5 experiment. Level 5 = community: interacting organisms, meta-organization (Szathmáry & Maynard Smith 1995).
PROTOCOL (three phases):
- Phase A: Group_1 (Alpha, Beta, Gamma) runs 10 rounds → establish hierarchy
- Phase B: Group_2 (Delta, Epsilon, Zeta) runs 10 rounds → establish hierarchy (Phase A and B are INDEPENDENT — separate shared memories, separate seeds)
- Phase C: Merge all 6 agents into single shared memory for 10 rounds (seed = concatenation of final states from both groups)
CRITICAL INNOVATION: pre-formation. Standard multi_agent starts from scratch. This experiment starts two groups SEPARATELY, then merges them. The merge creates a situation where agents have "cultural memory" from their origin group but must now interact with outsiders.
WHY N=3 per group (not N=4 per ROADMAP): N=3 is the minimal group that forms hierarchy (exp-asym: TR 0.444). N=3+3=6 total, which is within the scaling curve (exp-n6: TR ~0.38). Using N=3 keeps the pilot small and comparable to existing baselines.
WHAT WE MEASURE:
- Do agents preferentially interact with (cite/respond to) original group members?
- Does the merged group form a NEW hierarchy or maintain two parallel ones?
- Is merged TR_range > max(group_A_TR, group_B_TR)? (more complex = L5 property)
- Does vocabulary from group A propagate into group B and vice versa?
THEORETICAL GROUNDING:
- Szathmáry & Maynard Smith (1995): major evolutionary transitions involve formerly independent replicators forming higher-level units
- Mathis (2024): composition barrier — combining functional units may NOT produce higher-level functional units without new mechanisms
- Campedelli: social emergence requires interaction between pre-formed groups
THIS IS EXPLORATION TIER (N=1). Goal: does the phenomenon exist at all?