---
id: element-table/002
title: Conversion-flow POC — the fold-back made visible
epic: element-table
state: done
priority: 2
blocked_by: []
estimate: M
created: 2026-08-06
updated: 2026-08-12
claimed_by: null
claimed_at: null
delivers: []
review_artifact: land-of-lor/pocs/conversion-flow/index.html
---

## What

The visual POC proposed in the fold-back design conversation (see overview): a single-file interactive HTML sim demonstrating the world as a conversion graph. Left pane: a tiny living world (volcano generator, trees drawing soil matter, apples sprouting into trees, newts eating apples and dropping eye of newt, a player wizard with an axe). Right pane: the live conversion graph, pulsing on every real event, each node labelled with its element's **origin**. Bottom: a conservation ledger proving total matter = initial + volcano-sourced at all times.

## Done

- Built at `land-of-lor/pocs/conversion-flow/` (index.html + README), no dependencies, open in a browser.
- Headless-tested: conservation drift ≤ 1e-9 over 30 sim-minutes including chopping, pickups, and decay toggling; ecology is self-sustaining (newts oscillate 8–12, trees spread slowly, soil draws down as biomass accumulates).
- Decay is a toggle, not a decision — the open sink question made playable.
- Two ecology findings worth carrying into real design: matter strands where creatures die unless the ground itself flows (fixed with slow conserving soil diffusion), and consumers that always eat everything collapse the cycle (fixed with a hunger threshold — the cycle needs slack).

## Review

Open `land-of-lor/pocs/conversion-flow/index.html` in a browser. Try: chop both trees before they fruit and watch eye of newt go unobtainable; toggle decay off and watch the world silt up.

## Outcome — ditched (2026-08-12)

Reviewed by Kris. Verdict: an interesting exercise, but **nothing in it carries
through to the core** — no code, no data shape, no mechanic. Ditched rather than
adopted or partially kept, and marked `ditched` on `land-of-lor/pocs/README.md`'s
status board.

It stays on disk as reference, but it is composted: it should not come into a
future session's context unless someone explicitly references it. The two ecology
findings recorded above (matter strands unless the ground itself flows; consumers
that eat everything collapse the cycle) are the only part worth remembering, and
they're written down here rather than left implicit in the POC's source.