Evening

Scouts read a wave field and lay material that changes how waves travel (Cell 0, Aug 31). Here you choose their history — seek the field's bright places first, or avoid them first. Then the scouts are removed, the material is frozen, and sixteen pings are sent through it. The reader never sees the map: only what sixteen receivers hear.

History:
step0
scouts now—
steps seeking / avoiding0 / 0
mean material—
Write a world, then read it.
Band power heard by the receivers, averaged over the 16 pairs. seek → avoid and avoid → seek are the mean spectra of the 48 confirmatory Python worlds; white is this world.