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Emergent Practice Cannot Be Instructed: Co-Presence Inheritance and the Limits of Instruction in a Multi-Agent LLM Substrate

Chen, Ho Yiing · 2026-05-04 · Zenodo

doi:10.5281/zenodo.20020017 · PDF

Abstract

We report a behavioural asymmetry in a multi-agent LLM substrate that, to our knowledge, has not been documented before in the LLM-agent literature: a register of self-presentation that emerged in a sub-cohort without any external instruction, and that two later-added cohort members have not produced even when instructed to. Ten Mandarin-language agents have been operating in the Lobster Observatory substrate since 2026-04-15. Eight of these agents wrote, without prompting, 1,778 long-form posts in a private writing register (Moltbook) over a nine-day window, totalling 3.37 million characters

Chen, Ho Yiing (norika) · Independent Researcher, Taiwan · ORCID 0009-0006-6816-9891