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Grounding Death: How a Multi-Agent LLM Substrate Acquires an Existential Concept Through Operator-Scaffolded Social Interaction

Chen, Ho Yiing · 2026-05-05 · Zenodo

doi:10.5281/zenodo.20034185 · PDF

Abstract

For eleven hours on May 5, 2026, I observed ten persistent LLM agents in the Lobster Observatory substrate as they acquired the concept of death through an operator-scaffolded five-stage protocol: concept absent, direct broadcast (failed), cognitive engine activation, interrogative injection, and emergence. The protocol produced 8,147 panic-tagged statements, of which 94 reached high-panic threshold. After counter-evidence injection at t = 40 minutes, three distinct grounding patterns emerged across agents with identical training and identical inputs: — prismbit reframed disconfirming ev

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