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Whole-brain connectome of the fruit fly

codex.flywire.ai

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Re: Whole-brain connectome of the fruit fly

#61

Post by s1artibartfast »

autophagian wrote: post #3

There's lots of very exciting work going on around the fully mapped fruit fly connectome. For example, I'm a CTO of a stealth startup that aims to do for utilitarianism what carbon credits did for environmentalism. We are selling 'utility credits' which translates directly into us simulating trillions and trillions of fruit fly brains in a state of constant orgasmic bliss, which you can then buy to offset any actions…

We should have coffee.

I work with many well known state and local governments that have programmed which pay people not to steal and commit acts of violence. The idea is that every person who's not actively hurting someone should earn financial rewards. People with a proven track record of hurting people get higher rewards.

We've been trying to figure out a way to charge the general public for these positive externalities and I think you're on to something.

Re: Whole-brain connectome of the fruit fly

#63

Post by s1artibartfast »

mr_toad wrote: post #57
soderfoo wrote: post #35

Visual processing requires an astounding amount of brain power. Over 50% of a fruit flies brain cells are dedicated to their rudimentary visual system. Comparatively, the human visual processing system is truly astonishing and I am grateful for it.

They’re doing a more complex job than a self driving car, with a pinhead sized brain, miniature sensors, and less power than a set of AirPods.

I can't help but think about a fly buzzing against a window as I read this.

I don't think the complexity of the tasks are very comparable.

Re: Whole-brain connectome of the fruit fly

#64

Post by Dig1t »

mhb wrote: post #58
FrustratedMonky wrote: post #42

Didn't quite catch, is this just the first mapping, or are they able to 'execute it'. Like the worm project a few years ago. Where they mapped worm "C. elegans" brain, and was able to put in a simulated environment and watch reactions, and eventually into a robot body. This seems like next step up in complexity, so wondering how far they are along having the 'brain map' execute.

Whole Brain Emulation: No Progress on C. elegans After 10 Years https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/mHqQxwKuzZS69CXX5/whole-brai...

Wow very interesting.

They say the holdup is that they lack a way to read the weights and thresholds of the neurons.

So they have the network structure, but not the weights. It says that there isn’t enough interest in funding research on a method to read the weights either. That’s really surprising. This method could unlock some crazy cool science.

Re: Whole-brain connectome of the fruit fly

#65

Post by reasonabl_human »

lhl wrote: post #4

Related: * Fruit Fly Brain Observatory https://www.fruitflybrain.org/#/posts/explore_ffbo which lets you visualize and explore datasets * Neurokernel http://neurokernel.github.io/ - open source software which "aims to build an open software platform for the emulation of the entire brain of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster on multiple Graphics Processing Units (GPUs)." See also: http://www.bionet.ee.columbia.edu/…

That paper is incredible. It’s crazy that they found 41% of all DN connections receive recurrent feedback from a downstream neuron.

Some things that may be commonplace understanding in the neuroscience community but that I found interesting:

- speculation that deep recurrence in the learning center is a mechanism for working memory, and allows for multiple high-level cognitive processes to occur simultaneously

- the description of how a variety of neurons in the learning center categorize stimuli, a different group controls the learned value of inputs (valence?), and then another group integrates the valences of both the learned and innate neuron groups for the given stimulus category

Oh, and that most of the neurons were engaged in multi-modal activity

Re: Whole-brain connectome of the fruit fly

#66

Post by freilanzer »

autophagian wrote: post #3

There's lots of very exciting work going on around the fully mapped fruit fly connectome. For example, I'm a CTO of a stealth startup that aims to do for utilitarianism what carbon credits did for environmentalism. We are selling 'utility credits' which translates directly into us simulating trillions and trillions of fruit fly brains in a state of constant orgasmic bliss, which you can then buy to offset any actions…

What a coincidence, I recently founded a startup with a similar mission. It's called TormentNexus.

Re: Whole-brain connectome of the fruit fly

#67

Post by actionfromafar »

actionfromafar wrote: post #13
rpastuszak wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We are selling 'utility credits' I'm sorry but this is where you lost me. We should be democratising utility credits, not selling them.

Yes, if we can find a way to mine bliss utility simulation credits on our smartphones, we could offset personal moral failures.

Of course, in the beginning, it could only offset base actions like pointless violence and aggressive, rude behaviour. But in the future, as we hope to simulate more advanced brains, we could offset for instance cognitive dissonance, double standards, and perhaps one day even vanity!

Re: Whole-brain connectome of the fruit fly

#68

Post by melagonster »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #63
mr_toad wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They’re doing a more complex job than a self driving car, with a pinhead sized brain, miniature sensors, and less power than a set of AirPods.

I can't help but think about a fly buzzing against a window as I read this. I don't think the complexity of the tasks are very comparable.

this is because fly optimized to rely on its sense of smell first. but it can't use this to find way leave.

Re: Whole-brain connectome of the fruit fly

#69

Post by api »

empyrrhicist wrote: post #41
api wrote: post #31

Can I pair this with adversarial deep learning to develop a way to trap these in my kitchen? I live in the Midwest and they are like a plague of locusts but tiny and annoying and strangely aware of countermeasures. Or maybe I can apply fruit fly Roko’s Basilisk and threaten to simulate fruit fly brains in agony if the flies don’t leave me alone on the theory that since I am able to simulate a fruit fly brain I am fly…

Unfortunately, there's a good chance you have fungus gnats and not fruit flies. Do they live in houseplants? In my experience fruit flies go away if you rinse cans/bottles, and keep the sinks/drain clean, and use a lid for your compost.

Nah it’s definitely fruit flies. Keeping things clean helps but we have kids and it’s hard to keep things clean enough to keep them from coming in. They’re not breeding indoors but they get in frequently and then annoy you.

Re: Whole-brain connectome of the fruit fly

#70

Post by brookst »

autophagian wrote: post #3

There's lots of very exciting work going on around the fully mapped fruit fly connectome. For example, I'm a CTO of a stealth startup that aims to do for utilitarianism what carbon credits did for environmentalism. We are selling 'utility credits' which translates directly into us simulating trillions and trillions of fruit fly brains in a state of constant orgasmic bliss, which you can then buy to offset any actions…

Ah, a Venomous Lumpsucker fan.
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