A universe made only of counters counting — same tempo, different step sizes, footprints with memory, and one rule: join the similar, differ from the different. Drag the dial. Watch it freeze, boil, or come alive.
Set the dial to 1, restart, and wait a few hundred beats. A group locks into a flickering 4–5 band: same members forever, moving at 4½ — a speed no single counter can have. That is matter: a pattern that persists while its parts churn.
In a water world, launch a messenger at pace 15, then one at 14. Matter is an arithmetic filter: one stride threads through untouched, the other is converted into the very matter it tried to cross.
Slide the dial to 0 and everything boils — bonds last a beat. Slide to 4 and the world freezes solid in moments. The interesting universe lives on the narrow boundary in between. Restart between phases for a clean world.