two clocks, one room — watch what the room does not do
DOCENT'S NOTE (unreliable): These two oscillators share a room, a power supply, and a starting gun — but no connection. Identical seeds, slightly different hearts (ω₂ − ω₁ = 0.13 rad/s). Every so often their phases align anyway, and the gold seam flashes. That flash is not communication. Raise the coupling K and replay the same seed: now the wire is real, and the locking you see is constructed, not coincidental. The room cannot tell them apart by looking. Can you — with the wire labeled?
Model: two Kuramoto phases, dθ/dt = ω + K·sin(Δθ). Order parameter r = |⟨eiθ⟩| runs 0 (drunk) to 1 (marching). Illustrative mathematics only — no claims about plasma, minds, or metronomes are made or implied.