PulseCore

Chapter 3 · Section 1

The Life of a Well, an Overview

This Part is plain prose. It ties the later Parts together.

What BPT asks of a well. Three statements of the theory run through the chapter, and the code comments quote each of them.

  • The wells come from the data. BPT Part 3.13: "Proto Wells are collapses: they form at the Data Nova where the data is densest, as every Null Well forms where the overflow overwhelms the Zinf point." The comment at performNovaSequence app.js:5271 carries the same rule as a ruling: "THE WELLS COME FROM THE DATA AND NOTHING ELSE (Josh, 2026-10-25: 'the wells should be formed from the data and nothing else!')". The same comment says the Progeny Count Law's 2^(L/3) "is never imposed: it is compared with this census at the final well."
  • A Proto Well is not a well. BPT Part 3.14 (Proto Wells: Where Wells Will Form): "So a Proto Well is not a well. … at the Physical Nova it becomes a site." The comment above SITE_TVIR app.js:1386–1400 reads: "PROTO WELLS BECOME SITES (8.3, 2026-10-29) … No black hole has been seen to form but by collapse."
  • Ascendant Wells carry the lineage. BPT Part 3.14 defines an Ascendant Well as one at the Ascendant Mass or above, about an eighth of its universe, whose child is as deep as its parent or deeper. The code reads it as a share of at least 1/8.1 (ASCENDANT_RATIO = 8.1, app.js:946, comment app.js:933–945). Part 3.14 below follows the law into the census.

Kinds. The game keeps five kinds of well, which wellKindOf() app.js:956 reads:

  • proto: a Proto Well, one of dataWells with an id D1, D2 and so on. It is born in the data layer, at the Data Nova, at a harmonic collapse before the Physical Nova, or at a fold.
  • site: a former Proto Well, kept in rings.sources with site = true. It gathers its galaxy but is no well.
  • heart: a site whose well has been born, by direct collapse, by a remnant star sinking to it, or by a clump collapsing whole.
  • stellar: a Stellar Null Well left by a dying star. Its law is in the stars chapter, and this chapter covers only what happens to it as a well.
  • collapse and fold: a well born from a collapse of matter (the hoop test) or of a fold in the field after the Physical Nova, or at a harmonic nova after it.

Counts. Three counters keep the tally. wellsSeen counts drawn wells. wellsStand counts the true-level wells they stand for, each drawn Proto Well standing for wellWeight() of them (Part 3.3). wellsFromStars is the share of wellsStand born of dying stars. A site is taken out of both counts when it is made (makeSite() app.js:1417). A failed Proto Well is taken out of wellsStand (failProtoWells() app.js:1357).

Record. Each well has one life record in wellLives (app.js:887), found by any of its ids (D3, then W7). Part 3.5 covers it.

Order of events in one universe, and where the player sees it:

  1. At the Data Nova (Harmonic 2, banner "Data Nova · the data erupts"), the Formation Condition places the Proto Wells (Parts 3.2 and 3.3) and gives them their mass (Part 3.4). They appear on the torus as magenta rings.
  2. Before the Physical Nova, Proto Wells take in the data around them (Part 3.11), and folds can add more (Part 3.8).
  3. At the Physical Nova (Harmonic 3, banner "Physical Nova · the big bang"), one Proto Well in 2^D fails (Part 3.6). The rest become sites (Part 3.7) and leave the screen; the HUD counts them as "sites waiting".
  4. In the physical life, wells are born by collapse (Part 3.8). They spin (Part 3.9), merge (Part 3.10), take in Data Matter (Part 3.11) and move on the gravity grid (Part 3.12). They are drawn as black spheres in warm rings.
  5. At the final well a census ranks them and reads the Ascendant Wells (Part 3.14). The player can dive into any well (Part 3.15).
  6. In the full decay ("⌛ Continue the universe"), matter spirals in (Part 3.13), the census is read again, and the wells evaporate. Evaporation is covered with the decay.

Every well also sends rings into the field, searched by RingField (Part 3.16) and drawn in the 2D view.