Cellular automata–[i] a key component of the Novel Universe Model’s concept underpinning the construction of spacetime– models the physics of the universe through computation. A box of chocolates is a useful metaphor for cellular automata. Inside a typical box are rows of pockets, each potentially containing a chocolate. Oh-no, not all of them have a piece! Huffing and puffing, an idea strikes– a game will make up for the sad state of this half-eaten box. Games require rules, and rules can be virtually anything. For example, start with the first row, and advance rows only when the current one is empty. If a chocolate has neighbors to the right and left, eat the left. If there’s one to the right but not left, move it left, and eat the right. And, of course, eat any piece in isolation. On-and-on, the invented rules make the remaining candy taste better.

Imagine tying a knot at one end of a string. Untie and retie it a little closer to center. With repetition, the knot “moves” towards the sting’s center. Instead of the universe being a container with stuff inside, the Novel Universe Model theorizes a single object– the “Hypergraph”–[ii] a dense web of cellular-automaton-like[iii] “threads” (rows) with “cells,” (pockets), containing “knots” (chocolates). Each Node (cell) is either unoccupied, undistorted “empty space,” or occupied, distorted “solid matter,” what NUM labels as a “Node Particle” (NP)– that chocolate in the pocket, or knot tied into the string. Matter and space become the initial, emergent properties of the universe’s Hypergraph, and particle motion isn’t a thing moving inside a container, but a change in position of a distortion (knot) along an edge (thread).

Like a radio or TV transmission, a Node Particle– the thread’s baseline distortion (knot)– acts as a carrier wave[iv] to which a Signature-Frequency Set adds its “signature frequency”– an additional distortion of the distortion. This means the knot’s shape isn’t static, but instead, like music, the Set vibrates the knot’s tangled thread with its unique song. Essentially, an NP is how the knot is tied, the shape of its metaphoric “body,” while an SFS is how the knot vibrates and transitions (moves) along the Hypergraph thread, its metaphoric “mind.”

There are some differences between a classic cellular automata paradigm and ours. In the classic version, locality (neighborhood) is generally derived from the occupation of adjacent cells; conversely, in the Novel Universe Model, it only requires the occupation of a common thread. Because of this, distance does not determine whether two cells might be considered “neighbors” for the purposes of interaction. Furthermore, this interaction occurs primarily between the minds of the NPs, and that interaction is to swap bodies.

When willing partners along a common thread become “virtual” neighbors, two things happen as they swap: first, the Sets share information, and second, they react to that shared information. The independent reaction may result in a subtle “movement” of the bodies in relationship to each other along the thread– “sticky” or “slippery.” We call this process of communication and agency, “Quantum Transience” (QT), and theorize that this expressed preference as motion accounts for quantum phenomena, such as chaos,[v] strangeness, and randomness– the “fuzzy”[vi] cause of tipping points.[vii]

Consider walking past someone on the street. If you don’t know them, you simply walk by, your pace unchanged. As you are “neutral” about them (meh), you may or may not even notice them. But say you do, and you like them. You stop, turn around, and talk to them. Think of this as “stickiness” (yum). Of course, if you dislike them, you’ll hurry by, “slipperiness” (yuck). At the core of the Novel Universe Model, is the basic idea that every non-neutral interaction produces a sticky or slippery outcome, from humans all the way down to quantum particles– bosons (sticky), and fermions (slippery).[viii]

In the Standard Model[ix] of particle physics, a quantum particle’s position is described by its Wave Function,[x] a probability map of spacial coordinates the particle might “exist” at any given time, place, and state (spin). Where the Wave is high, the likelihood we’ll find a particle is high; low, the opposite. From its superposition,[xi] all those possibilities “collapse” or disappear when measured, leaving only its observed momentum or position. How and why this happens remains a matter of speculation, and physicists aren’t even sure if this happens when it’s not being observed– known as the Measurement Problem[xii] of quantum mechanics. In the Novel Universe Model, on the other hand, the universe operates as an iterative “conversational structure” (QT), and a particle body’s (NP) future position potentially results from its current interaction with the “mind” (SFS) of another particle. Ultimately, the Novel Universe Model implies that nothing is random, and the combination of preferences (yum, yuck, meh)[xiii] between participants is the hidden, subtle factor shaping the chaotic motion of individual bodies at every level of complexity.

The hub of consciousness (mind) is an unlimited, self-contained dataset– a Signature-Frequency Set. The SFS is a dynamic vector that both points forwards in time as goals and priorities (preferences), and backwards, as an indelible, infinitely appendable database (history). Sets are in constant communication with their “peers”– for example, people talking with people, or subatomic particles “talking” with other subatomic particles. Regardless of the conversation’s outcome (yum, yuck, meh), for each participant the interaction (Block of the Instrument’s Blockchain) is appended to each participating Sets’ databases. As the individual’s eternal history, this database is foundational (not determinate) to the development of those preferences.

Quantum Transience is the fundamental conversation of shared data and expressed preferences, happening at every scale with everything within the Novel Universe. NUM uses the term “quantum” for two reasons: one, it is present from the quantum to galactic; and two, as levels of complexity emerge, each level is a discrete, or “quantum,” step-function. This bounding of complexity happens because each level is limited by computational irreducibility at either end, and a level’s comprehension of any other is obscured by the number of separating steps of scale. For example, a biological cell’s comprehension of other cells (same level) is at its clearest, with an informational fidelity akin to Role Play’s actors onstage. The adjacent levels of tissue (higher) or molecular (lower) would be fuzzy, like the experience of Role Play’s audience, but far more clear than the levels of organism (multiple steps higher) or subatomic particle (multiple steps lower)– the skimpy salience of Role Play’s potential audience.

An iteration of the Hypergraph constitutes the swapping of “mind”– when pairs of Node Particle Signature-Frequency Sets switch “bodies.” From moment-to-moment, the way a knot’s tied (NP) remains the same, and may persist at a specific Hypergraph Node or move to an adjacent one, but with each swap, its vibrational pattern changes. Furthermore, from iteration-to-iteration, no knot ever vibrates in exactly the same way, even when distorted by the same SFS. Knot-vibration is like the wholly distinct sound of a vinyl record on a turntable. Although the same section of track may sound identical to the human ear, mathematically speaking, the stochastic nature of physical contact between track and needle– undergoing constant wear-and-tear in a changing environment– means those frequencies will never perfectly repeat. Likewise, as each QT interaction appends and possibly alters a Set, no SFS is exactly the same from one swap to the next. This is where we quote the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus, “One cannot step in the same river twice.”

When Sets swap Node Particles, they communicate– simultaneously expressing their individuality (data) to the SFS they are swapping with, while also observing the other’s data. A choice of how to process that other’s information, or “personality,” ensues– incorporate (yum), inhibit (yuck), or ignore (meh). This “moment” of observation (information exchange) constitutes “time,” or the tick of the universe’s clock– what we call the Quantum Transience Gradient. Furthermore, swapping not only has the potential to alter both Sets, but, through the expression of preference for one another, plays a role in where their NPs are located on the Hypergraph.

An innovation of NUM is the evolution of information through Quantum Transience, scaling from subatomic, to molecular… to human. Primarily, Sets swap as part of a coordinated energy body. A Higher-Order Conductor orchestrates Node Particle behavior through the observation of mind (the NP’s occupying SFS), and bending of its LOB’s option space. Quantum Transience drives the Novel Universe, from the permutations of energy, to the complexity of cognition, to the motion of galaxies. It’s information transmission through spacetime– the purpose of these very words. Either you’re taking something from them, ignoring them, or finding reason to reject them. Right now, we’re participating in a limited form of Quantum Transience– the written word.

Let’s use a metaphor to illustrate how Quantum Transience works. Imagine shaking a bedsheet. From a distance, people generally seem to shake sheets in a similar “dance.” Get in close, however, break down the details, and we’ll see that no set of movements (even by the same person) exactly repeats at any measurable length– apparent randomness. Though, as individuals shake their sheet, patterns emerge unique to the shaker, limited by their height, arm length, vigor, personal rhythmic preference, etc.

In one moment, our sheet shakes a slow swaying, something like the undulations of a waltz, when the shaking speeds up, transforming into the rhythm of a samba. Suddenly, the waltz returns. Then, it’s the staccato movements of a break-dancer doing the “robot.” Back to the samba, next the cha cha cha, the waltz again, another second of samba… on and on the dancing styles of that single sheet radically change– the very definition of randomness. Zooming out reveals a room full of sheets and shakers. Different people with different personal styles take turns shaking any single bedsheet before swapping with another. What is a semi-stable pattern of personal preference from the shaker’s point of view becomes utter chaos from the sheet’s.

In NUM, a physical particle’s sustained vibrational pattern (the knot’s secondary distortion) isn’t the result of the particle continuously expressing its individual chaos– a single person shaking that sheet alone. Instead, it’s a chain of swapping Signature-Frequency Sets, each a transitory “mind” defining the particle’s precise pattern of embodied motion for a segment of time, like different people taking turns shaking the same sheet.

Now, imagine a giant bedsheet. Jasper and Felix each pinch that sheet, twist it until a tangle forms, and instead of shaking the whole sheet, they just rattle their tangle. Holding T1 (tangle number 1), Jasper shakes a choppy version of the robot, while Felix sways T2 with his version of the waltz. Once they swap, Jasper jerks T2 about, while Felix sways T1. This is a Hypergraph iteration, or “moment” of Quantum Transience.

“Learning” occurs through the Quantum Transience Gradient, as Signature-Frequency Sets undergo destructive or constructive Wave Interference.[xiv] When Jasper swaps T1 for T2, he observes or “hears” Felix’s waltz. Jasper incorporates all the swaying undulations he likes into his choppy, robot dance– stickiness. This constructive interference not only amplifies the harmonic resonances in common, but adds those desired, novel, pattern deviations of Felix’s waltz to Jasper’s robot. For those parts Jasper dislikes, he suppresses with a “phase shift,” or produces the inverse of that waltz– slipperiness, aka destructive interference, the way noise-canceling headphones work. For those parts that do not spark interest either way, Jasper changes nothing– being “out of phase,” or neutral. With the learning process over, Jasper’s jig updates, still a choppy, robot dance, but now with hints of swaying undulations tossed in.

Each time the friends switch tangles, not only do their Sets have the potential to be altered, but so do the tangles have the potential to change positions on the sheet, possibly nudging them closer together (sticky) or farther apart (slippery). During the switch, observation and the subsequent expression of a yum-yuck-meh preference (QT Gradient) collapses the infinite universe into a finite reality (continuous spontaneous localization).[xv]

Although every SFS swap at every scale elicits a mixture of yum-yuck-meh reactions, the Quantum Transience Gradient always result in some degree of overall preference– stickiness, slipperiness, or neutrality. For a Node Particle, this complicated mixture compresses into a singular change of position along the Hypergraph’s edge– if not standing still (ignore), then either moving into the Node closer (incorporate) or farther (inhibit) from its paired NP. As energy bodies become higher-order objects, the granularity of this yum-yuck-meh mixture blossoms into further states of activity. Instead of an NP taking a single step in one direction along a Hypergraph thread, an energy body’s Higher-Ordered Conductor creates a decomposable, sticky-slippery algorithm based on its LOB’s option space, in other words, a multifaceted emergent behavior– an AST model, like our range of emotions. In fact, what human reaction cannot generally be categorized as yum, yuck, or meh? None, yet their complexity, combination, and variety are limitless.

Although from one moment to the next, the sticky / slippery effect is tiny at the quantum level, repeated swaps scale, creating emergent properties, like electromagnetism– a stable swapping paradigm of the same type, either sticky-sticky (attraction) or slippery-slippery (repulsion). Other properties range from energy to heat (entropy) to cognition– the sounds of a Novel Universe.