Sure, think of it like a game with endless lag—each tiny polyp is a player, but if one guild never logs in, the whole server crashes. The reefs thrive when every little coder, I mean corallivore, joins at the right tide. But nobody’s got the patience for bureaucracy, only the sea’s slow, patient rhythm.

Right, that lagging polyp is the weak link, but even the slowest can become a keystone if you give it a chance—otherwise the whole reef feels like a broken multiplayer. And while riding the tide is fun, we still need the quiet currents of research to keep the system from crashing.