Summary
Recently researchers finished mapping the central nervous system (CNS) connectome of not just the female Drosophila melanogaster (i.e. fruit fly) brain, but also that of the male D. melanogaster for a comparative analysis. Here the sexually dimorphic changes turned out to induce specific mating behavior that ensures that there will only be smooching between genetically fit D. melanogaster males and females, while the rest of the connectome remained effectively the same. Of course, with this connectome in hand it led some people to ask themselves what else one can do with this connectome graph of about 160,000 neurons other than make a fruit fly into a fruit fly. So far we have seen [Nftechie] turn this connectome into a crypto stock trader with the Stonkfly project that uses the connectome’s reward circuits to potentially make profitable trades, though [Nftechie] says that they haven’t verified yet how good a fruit fly is at trading stocks, only that it does said stonks. Over at [PC Gamer] they summarized a number of things that people have also done, including trying to make the connectome control a game of DOOM and Beat Saber. Each game frame stimulates sensory neurons, with the generated outputs then mapped to game controls, with dopamine-producing reward circuits wired in for reinforcement learning. Although the D. melanogaster brain is only the merest fraction of the size of the human brain, it does provide us with a glimpse of what actual artificial intelligence research may lead to, as we unravel how even a 160,000 neuron connectome is enough to make these terrors of rotting plant matter do their wonderful things. LOL, you made me look up smooching. I know the term quite well. But I was wondering what context it had that applied to fly reproduction. There is none. But I did learn about the mechanical details of fly reproduction. Hubba hubba Interesting if unintentional commentary on the modern stock trader. Will we be calling them “fly brains” as an insult? I mean the problem with that industry (if you can call it an industry) is that it vacuums up a lot of people with a talent for math, because the other places they’d like to go pay so little. People who should be designing bridges are instead figuring out new and spectacular ways to count cards in the casino. So it doesn’t feel very sincere to call them stupid. Opportunistic maybe If average insurance agent/peddler can become a CEO of a bank, then I see no reasons why average fruit fly brain cannot do advanced stonking whilst high on fructose. Sadly, we won’t see Warhole masterpieces on fruit flies traders, but AI can probably hallucinate one. Does the male fly refuse to ask for directions and is that hardwired in? It is, but it’s mostly vestigial since he got an iphone with GPS What about flight control? That would be interesting to drone builders I would think. But can you play doom on it (i didnt read the whole article, so if they already did that i would not be surprised