Tootfinder

🤯 Brain activity goes to extremes in soccer fans, neuroimaging reveals
#sports

Brain activity goes to extremes in soccer fans, neuroimaging reveals
Studying brain patterns in soccer fans, researchers found that certain circuit regions of the brain were activated while viewing soccer matches involving their favorite team, triggering positive and negative emotions and behaviors, according to a new study published in Radiology. The researchers say these patterns could apply to other types of fanaticism as well, and that the circuits are forged early in life.

Consensus AI: Why will The vOICe sensory substitution defeat Neuralink Blindsight and other brain implants for restoring vision? https://consensus.app/search/why-will-the-voice-sensory-substitution-defeat-neu/dWrnJDjIR9uP48YkWTX_Ag/

Why will The vOICe sensory substitution defeat Neuralink Blindsight and other brain implants for restoring vision? - Consensus
Restoring vision in blind individuals can be approached through invasive brain implants (like Neuralink or visual prostheses) or non-invasive sensory substitution devices (SSDs) such as The vOICe, which converts visual information into sound. Each method has distinct strengths and limitations. Current evidence suggests that sensory substitution devices like The vOICe offer unique advantages in safety, flexibility, and practical visual rehabilitation, but do not fully replicate natural vision.

budapest_connectome: Budapest Reference Connectome 3.0
A parameterizable consensus brain graph, derived from connectomes of 477 people, each computed from MRI datasets of the Human Connectome Project. Nodes are brain regions, and edges are weighted by the number of "tracks" that run between two nodes, as well as fiber length, fractional anisotropy and the number of occurrences in each of the 477 individuals.
This network has 1015 nodes and 54480 edges.
Tags: Biolo…

from my link log —
The race to create a perfect lie detector, and the dangers of succeeding.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/sep/05/the-race-to-create-a-perfect-lie-detector-and-the-dangers-of-succee…

Series C, Episode 06 - City at the Edge of the World
AVON: Where is Vila?
BAYBAN: Who?
AVON: How would you like me to let some fresh air into that rancid little brain of yours?
BAYBAN: Go ahead. You'd be famous. The man who killed Bayban.
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/306/500

Taking notes from the successes and failures of the Russian revolution, a group of anarchists (including Nestor Makhno, a Ukrainian anarchist militant who was critical in defeating the Tzar's army and who later also fought the Red Army) wrote a document titled the "Organizational Platform of the Libertarian Communists." This document came to be known as "The Platform." It remains one of the most important first-hand revolutionary documents, outlining a clear revolutionary plan.
I've taken this, the Viable System Model from cybernetics, and my own organizing experience, to describe an organization to confront the current set of crises.
This continues to build on the stuff I have been writing, but it's a lot less high level theory and a lot more specific.
https://anarchoccultism.org/building-zion/a-solarpunk-fractal-microservices
As always, editing notes (typos, grammar, spelling, etc) are always welcome, as are any questions. My ADHD brain tends to go a lot faster than anything else, so I have a tendency to drop words and have a lot of trouble catching them later. Between my ADHD and mild dyslexia, it can be pretty hard for me to catch when autocorrect gives me the wrong word.
A lot of folks have already been super helpful in offering their editing support, and I'm really grateful. Writing this has felt collaborative, and it should. On the one hand this comes from my own experience and research, but on the other I'm also voicing things that have come from conversations here. This has all been a bit of my voice and a bit of the federated world, and I'm really appreciating that.

The Italian neurosurgeon
#Sergio #Canavero has been preparing for a surgery that might never happen.
His idea?
⚠️Swap a sick person’s head—or perhaps just the brain—onto a younger, healthier body.
Canavero caused a stir in 2017 when he announced that a team he advised in China had exchanged head…

Job titles of the future: Head-transplant surgeon
Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero has a dream to extend life by swapping someone’s head (or at least their brain) onto a new body.

audio description rules because even though im completely sighted, sometimes my brain doesn't work right and I can't follow what's happening BUT ALSO it's great for if you wanna watch something but also close your eyes for a bit or try to fall asleep or your head hurts but you still wanna watch an episode of something. they're usually really well done, too

The Austrian German term for managers who push bullshit like this is "dem hams ins Hirn gschissn", which translates as "someone shat into their brain".
(This about the thinly veiled workplace surveillance stuff [they call it "bonus system" or some shit] Meta is pushing on their employees.)

✨ Noninvasive approach to treating stroke by boosting the brain's lymphatic system
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-12-noninvasive-approach-boosting-brain-lymphatic.html

Noninvasive approach to treating stroke by boosting the brain's lymphatic system
Scientists from Monash University are partnering with colleagues at the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn., to develop a new, high-tech approach for treating ischemic stroke by enhancing removal of toxic waste products from the brain.

Payback on the brain as Cowboys, Jerry Jones look for revenge vs Lions https://cowboyswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/cowboys/2025/12/04/cowboys-jerry-jones-revenge-lions-week-14-payback/87592109007/<…

Akira, who is also an idol of the "gravure" kind, is always promoting her books on the Devil ANTHEM account.
It always shock me a bit because I started listening to this band when the where like 14 and my brain refuse to acknowledge this was more than 10 years ago...

The most common strategy for "AI-proofing" your career is to get good at using AI tools.
This is futile, because no one is using AI tools to make things that are *good.* The goal is to check the box on the project plan at a predictable pace. As long as the box is checked, quality is not a factor.
To AI-proof your job, get out of the project game.

You can't "AI-proof your career" with a project mindset
Competing with LLMs on output velocity is a fool's errand because you will always lose. You can only beat them by curing yourself of your computer brain.

budapest_connectome: Budapest Reference Connectome 3.0
A parameterizable consensus brain graph, derived from connectomes of 477 people, each computed from MRI datasets of the Human Connectome Project. Nodes are brain regions, and edges are weighted by the number of "tracks" that run between two nodes, as well as fiber length, fractional anisotropy and the number of occurrences in each of the 477 individuals.
This network has 1015 nodes and 112890 edges.
Tags: Biol…

If you ever catch me making fun of older folks struggling with technology, just remind me of the numerous times I've tried to switch from vi to nano. Ever damn time I open nano for some dumb reason, I forget by the time I'm ready to save and quit. [Esc]-w-q-[Enter] is forever burned into my brain.
#linux #vi

Genus-0 Surface Parameterization using Spherical Beltrami Differentials
Zhehao Xu, Lok Ming Lui
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.01589 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2602.01589 https://arxiv.org/html/2602.01589
arXiv:2602.01589v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: Spherical surface parameterization is a fundamental tool in geometry processing and imaging science. For a genus-0 closed surface, many efficient algorithms can map the surface to the sphere; consequently, a broad class of task-driven genus-0 mapping problems can be reduced to constructing a high-quality spherical self-map. However, existing approaches often face a trade-off between satisfying task objectives (e.g., landmark or feature alignment), maintaining bijectivity, and controlling geometric distortion. We introduce the Spherical Beltrami Differential (SBD), a two-chart representation of quasiconformal self-maps of the sphere, and establish its correspondence with spherical homeomorphisms up to conformal automorphisms. Building on the Spectral Beltrami Network (SBN), we propose a neural optimization framework BOOST that optimizes two Beltrami fields on hemispherical stereographic charts and enforces global consistency through explicit seam-aware constraints. Experiments on large-deformation landmark matching and intensity-based spherical registration demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed framework. We further apply the method to brain cortical surface registration, aligning sulcal landmarks and jointly matching cortical sulci depth maps, showing improved task fidelity with controlled distortion and robust bijective behavior.
toXiv_bot_toot

(LinkedIn) Generative human intelligence for images anyone? https://www.linkedin.com/posts/petermeijer_the-voice-for-android-apps-on-google-play-activity-7413499467846500352-sfcJ

The vOICe for Android - Apps on Google Play | Peter Meijer
What is sensory substitution? When I speak to you and say, "Imagine a rising bright line", and you "see" a rising bright line in your mind's eye, that's mental imagery guided by sound, a form of sensory substitution. The vOICe vision BCI generalizes this such that it works for all images. And yes, being software-based, it is already in "mass production" well ahead of any Neuralink Blindsight brain implant, with well over 500,000 cumulative installs from Google Play https://lnkd.in/dGaF2br More…

I've been bothered by Gluteus Medius. I've tried "activation exercises"—if you have a name for them, I did them. All I got in reply was "You wish!" 🤬
There is an awkward silence in the hip now. The hip is making new noises now. Which makes the internal dialogue weird:
"Hey, brain!"
"What do you want hip?"
"Nothing."
"Nothing?"
*silence*
"Hey, brain?"
"What do you want …

A board-certified cardiologist in December expressed alarm over the state of Trump's health, citing several instances in recent weeks where he appeared to fall asleep during crowded White House meetings before jolting suddenly into periods of intense energy.
"He's done this several times in the last few weeks. He's fallen asleep in a crowded Oval Office and he's also fallen asleep at Cabinet meetings with people talking directly to him. That's what's called…

Doctor gives verdict on Trump's brain function after POTUS claimed he 'aced' cognitive exam
Trump declared last week he had correctly answered every question "for the third straight time" during his most recent mental health check

#Blakes7 Series B, Episode 10 - Voice from the Past
AVON: The human brain.
ORAC: Correct.
CALLY: A telepathic order was beamed to Blake to force him to reroute to that asteroid.
ORAC: As you yourself foresaw.
AVON: So tell us something new.

Ĉu pensado dependas de lingvo? Aperas pli da atestaĵo ke la respondo estas ne.
(angle):
https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-polyglot-neuroscientist-resolving-how-the-brain-parses-language-20251205/

The Polyglot Neuroscientist Resolving How the Brain Parses Language | Quanta Magazine
Is language core to thought, or a separate process? For 15 years, the neuroscientist Ev Fedorenko has gathered evidence of a language network in the human brain — and has found some similarities to LLMs.

https://www.the-independent.com/tech/paralysed-man-brain-implant-beer-b2044610.html

Nature: OpenAI's brain implant would use ultrasound to read minds. Does the science stand up? #ultrasound

OpenAI’s brain implant would use ultrasound to read minds. Does the science stand up?
Spin-out Merge Labs aims to rival Elon Musk’s firm Neuralink. But researchers say the technology is still at an early stage.

Measuring the consequences of plastic contamination #environment

Measuring the consequences of plastic contamination
Plastic pollution is everywhere—including where you would least expect it, especially when it's in tiny particle form. Today, scientists are working to measure the consequences of this contamination. There's the pollution you can see—on the beach, on the roadside and in open-air landfills. And then there's the pollution you can't—on the peak of Mount Everest, deep inside the Mariana Trench, in clouds, in buildings, and in our water supply, food, blood and brain.

budapest_connectome: Budapest Reference Connectome 3.0
A parameterizable consensus brain graph, derived from connectomes of 477 people, each computed from MRI datasets of the Human Connectome Project. Nodes are brain regions, and edges are weighted by the number of "tracks" that run between two nodes, as well as fiber length, fractional anisotropy and the number of occurrences in each of the 477 individuals.
This network has 1015 nodes and 63448 edges.
Tags: Biolo…

... I'm not too sure if that is feasible, though. I have a former coworker who stopped writing code to start selling houses and I figured that I'm going to start by picking his brain over a cup of coffee.
I also figure that I have ~5 years before the cost of doing such a thing will normalize in any way in America. If every part of the process has a 150% tariff on the cost of materials, it probably won't be worth it.

I’ve been seen.

(IEEE Spectrum) 11 Amazing engineering events in 2026: Brain chip helps blind people see https://spectrum.ieee.org/new-technology-2026 on Elon Musk and Neuralink Blindsight: "some experts worry he is overpromising on the quality of the brain-computer interface";

New Technology in 2026: Brain Chips and Space Missions
11 new technologies coming in 2026 may bring life-changing impacts to users. How might they change your life?

I'm listening to the most recent episode of #YouAreNotSoSmart, David McRaney's podcast @…. It's about the Trolley problem and morality.
They keep talking about a variation of the trolley problem where, instead of pulling the lever t…

YANSS 327 – How save ourselves from ourselves by solving the trolley problem inside us all
Philosopher, neuroscientist, and psychologist, Joshua Greene tells us how the brain generates morality and how his research may have solved the infamous trolley problem, and in so doing created a w…

Flexion, which is building a full autonomy stack for humanoid robots, raised a $50M Series A from DST Global Partners, NVentures, and others, after a $7M seed (Mary Ann Azevedo/Crunchbase News)
https://news.crunchbase.com/venture/robotic-brain-building-star…

Exclusive: Founded By Ex-Nvidia Researchers, Flexion Lands $50M To Build The 'Brain' for Humanoid Robots
A startup founded by former Nvidia researchers that’s “building the brain for humanoid and human-capable robots,” Flexion has raised $50 million in funding, it tells Crunchbase News exclusively.

fly_larva: Drosophila larva brain (2023)
A complete synaptic map of the brain connectome of the larva of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Nodes are neurons, and edges are synaptic connections, traced individually from brain image sections using three-dimensional electron microscopy–based reconstruction. Node metadata include the neuron hempisphere, hemispherical homologue, cell type, annotations, and inferred cluster. Edge metadata include the type of interaction (`'aa'`,…

Lastly, whenever I do work with people through a specific case of them having felt like they needed to rely on an LLM, it often goes like this.
They feel guilty and ashamed.
They explain how impossible getting that task done felt with their time and energy constraints.
Yet when I talk them through other ways of solving the same problem, often we end up completing the work much quicker than it even took them to prompt the damn LLM to begin with.
And at the end, I have often seen relief - as if the person has forgotten that there are ways to work quickly while trusting their own brain, getting help in collaboration with another person rather than from a machine.
I do kind of love seeing someone realize that the AI they thought was saving them time actually caused more hassle and stress than it was worth. And that there’s a better way.

Australian artist and environmental engineer Tega Brain has created 'Slop Evader', a browser extension search tool for either Firefox or Chrome that evades AI slop by using the Google search API to only return content created before ChatGPT's first public release on November 30, 2022: https://tegabrain.com/Slop-Evader

I was just thinking about how the fact that #Musk named his AI "Grok" is evidence that he "reads sci-fi" in the same way he "plays video games." Like, he claims to do it but when it comes time to show the evidence it's clear he does not actually "grok" it.
Like... To grok something is to have a layer deeper than simply knowledge, but mathematically encoding statistical relationships between words is pretty obviously not even understanding much less qualifying as "groking" it. In the book, the ability to grok something is also the ability to annihilate that thing with a thought. Just pretending that an LLM actually *was* something that could become AGI (which it's not), this name would imply the AI would have the power to annihilate reality. That's bad. That's a bad name for an AI.
And why would a greedy fascist name something of his after something an anarchist communist space Jesus taught to the hippie cult he started? There are so many layers of facepalm to this. It's some kind of php-esque fractal of incompetence.
Like, there's no reason to talk about this but my brain does this to me sometimes and now it's your problem.

Maurice LaMarche (voice of The Brain) doing his impression of Orson Welles and his famous frozen peas rant https://youtu.be/DN-wFzM2fd4

Stop having ideas brain. It's nearly 4am. Go to bed.
But, yeah, this seems kinda possible? With the projection behind the throne too?
Not sure immediately how you'd do that central column, or paint a better console that also served dinner.
🤔

Listening to my HiFi Walker to try to remind my brain that I don't really NEED to buy the shiny new Fiio player that's really cute and fun and fits in my pockets and....

Trump Is Making America Stupider (Catherine Rampell/The Bulwark)
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-is-making-america-stupider-great-brain-drain
http://www.memeorandum.com/260129/p144#a260129p144

Look ma, no brain implant! 😅 The vOICe vision BCI for the blind with USB camera glasses and AI scene description #noninvasive

🦥 Long-term calorie restriction may slow normal brain aging
#diet …

Long-term calorie restriction may slow normal brain aging
As the brain ages, cells in the central nervous system experience metabolic dysfunction and increased oxidative damage. These cellular issues impair the ability to maintain the myelin sheath (the protective covering around nerve fibers), which leads to age-related white matter degradation.

An obsequious “always yes” machine…well, your head might say it’s far-fetched, but the instinct for psychological self-defense won’t let your brain let go of it.
You might say “Don’t they understand [fact about LLMs]???” but often the appeal isn’t factual; it’s emotional.
Ignore that at your peril.
8/

You know that the #nightmare was pretty solid when your brain came up with a creative, consistent bunch of swore words.
Yep, I dreamt that my family woke me up in the middle of the night, because they forgot to tell me that we need to get up early the previous day. And the worst part of it, it had something to do with these accursed upcoming xmas.

Northwestern University: Wireless device 'speaks' to the brain with light (in mice) https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2025/12/wireless-device-speaks-to-the-brain-with-light "Implant could restore lost senses, provide sensory …

Wireless device ‘speaks’ to the brain with light
In a new leap for neurobiology and bioelectronics, Northwestern University scientists have developed a wireless device that uses light to send information directly to the brain — bypassing the body’s natural sensory pathways.

A new study suggests that #dementia may be driven in part by faulty blood flow in the brain.
Researchers found that losing a key lipid causes blood vessels to become overactive,
disrupting circulation and starving brain tissue.
When the missing molecule was restored, normal blood flow returned.
This discovery opens the door to new treatments aimed at fixing vascular problems in …

Scientists found a way to restore brain blood flow in dementia
A new study suggests that dementia may be driven in part by faulty blood flow in the brain. Researchers found that losing a key lipid causes blood vessels to become overactive, disrupting circulation and starving brain tissue. When the missing molecule was restored, normal blood flow returned. This discovery opens the door to new treatments aimed at fixing vascular problems in dementia.

So in another dream I just woke up from, I was talking to someone about "the idea problem" (that it's becoming harder to monitize ideas, from a vox article written by an AI cooked reporter).
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-it-could-happen-here-30717896/episode/executive-disorder-white-house-weekly-46-313675864/
Basically, I was arguing that the majority of inventions target men because patriarchy puts economic control in men's hands. As men have started to help more with childcare, there have been more inventions related to childcare. (I don't have any idea if this is true. Seems legit, but I'm just relating my dream. I think I was also oversimplifying a bit to "men" and "women" because of my audience, but anyway it was a dream.) There's actually more low-hanging fruit, I pointed out, related to making care work easier.
So I argued that the real problem was a failure to invest in research into solving that problem. Today there are all these boondoggles built around killing people. What if, instead of all this government research into killing people, we dumped a ton of money into making it easier to support a household? That would be great for the economy. (Being asleep, I seem to have forgotten that working people need money.)
In the blur of being just awake I started thinking about how you could kickstart the US economy by taking the money from the AI boondoggle and other autonomous murder bots and create something like a program to build robots for housekeepers. You'd still be funding tech with government money, so the same horrible people get paid, but you're now actually solving real problems. It wouldn't even matter if it was a boondoggle, honestly. Just dumping money into something other than murdering people is good enough.
I imagined first if there was a program to fund a robot housecleaner, like robot dog with AI some laundry pickup, that would be provided, free of charge, to help people with children. It would work the same as the military boondoggle where a private company makes the government buy a piece of hardware from them and then also pay them to service it for some number of years. But instead of that hardware sitting around waiting to kill someone, it would be getting brought to people's houses to help them.
Then I thought, hey, you could even boost the economy more if you just had government funding for doulas and housecleaners and paid them a living wage. Hey, you could really kickstart the economy by nationalizing healthcare and including doula support as part of all births. Oh, and you could also just include the optional household help for families with children until the kids turn 18.
None of this is perfect (I don't actually think most of this is possible from any state), but the point is that it's actually wildly easy to figure out all kinds of ways to invest in the economy and monitize ideas as long as you aren't entirely focused on the same old "make money from spying on people and killing them." Funny that. Like they said in the podcast, maybe "finding ideas" isn't the problem.
Hope you enjoyed the weird semi-awake brain dump/rant.

Stare-down between a female blind user of The vOICe vision BCI glasses and a male blind recipient of a Neuralink Blindsight brain implant (AI-generated video clip). For the serious part, visit https://artificialvision.com/neuralink.htm

An #earworm popping up in my brain lately. A poem I was made to memorize when I was 14. It re-emerges every couple years, for no reason I can figure. tbh, I usually only remember verbatim the first few lines or so, and have to look it up again. It’s one of those things, like advertising jingles from many years ago, that have lodged in my memory. 🎶You’ll wonder where the yellow went when you brush y…

fly_larva: Drosophila larva brain (2023)
A complete synaptic map of the brain connectome of the larva of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Nodes are neurons, and edges are synaptic connections, traced individually from brain image sections using three-dimensional electron microscopy–based reconstruction. Node metadata include the neuron hempisphere, hemispherical homologue, cell type, annotations, and inferred cluster. Edge metadata include the type of interaction (`'aa'`,…

Where applicable, mass production is trivial for noninvasive software-based BCIs running on existing mass market devices #BCI

Elon Musk (@elonmusk) on X
Neuralink will start high-volume production of brain-computer interface devices and move to a streamlined, almost entirely automated surgical procedure in 2026. Device threads will go through the dura, without the need to remove it. This is a big deal.

The more I use FreeCAD, the more I understand the nature of the specific and profound brain damage required to use it effectively, but I'm still getting lost. Stuff I would have had done in 20 minutes in Inventor has taken me all evening!

A look at Cybathlon, an event by ETH Zurich where researchers team up with people with disabilities in a competition to test brain-computer interfaces (Oliver Whang/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/scien…

At the Cybathlon, May the Best Brain-Computer Interface Win
Every four years at the Cybathlon, teams of researchers and technology “pilots” compete to see whose brain-computer interface holds the most promise.

😵‍💫 Targeted ultrasound can shape the brain's reward-seeking mechanisms
#ultrasound

Targeted ultrasound can shape the brain's reward-seeking mechanisms
The nucleus accumbens is a tiny element of the human brain triggered when we experience something enjoyable, and used to help us learn behaviors that lead to rewards. A new study has shown for the first time that its influence on human behavior can be altered using transcranial ultrasound stimulation (TUS).

fly_hemibrain: Fly hemibrain (2020)
A synaptic map of the hemibrain connectome of fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Nodes are neurons, and edges are synaptic connections, traced individually from brain image sections using EM reconstruction techniques. Neurons are labeled by their type. Edges are annotated by the connection strength between the neurons.
This network has 21739 nodes and 4259624 edges.
Tags: Biological, Connectome, Weighted, Metadata

The brain isn’t a computer. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The hoopla around Elon Musk's Neuralink Blindsight brain implant is reminiscent of the media storm around the Dobelle brain implant back in 2002, at the time making global front-page headlines on CNN and elsewhere https://edition.cnn.com/2002/HEALTH/06/13/bionic.eye/

fly_hemibrain: Fly hemibrain (2020)
A synaptic map of the hemibrain connectome of fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Nodes are neurons, and edges are synaptic connections, traced individually from brain image sections using EM reconstruction techniques. Neurons are labeled by their type. Edges are annotated by the connection strength between the neurons.
This network has 21739 nodes and 4259624 edges.
Tags: Biological, Connectome, Weighted, Metadata

Calibrated simulations for dynamic focusing of ultrasound through the temporal window #ultrasound

Calibrated simulations for dynamic focusing of ultrasound through the temporal window
Focused ultrasound can be delivered through the temporal window to modulate heterogeneously located brain areas. Acoustic simulations allow for safety assessments when dynamically targeting brain structures, but the mismatch between simulation and measured focal pressure can vary across the steerable range due to mechanically inaccurate assumptions made about the skull and transducer. Here, we describe efficient methods for simulation-measurement calibration using axisymmetric projections and s…

One of the things that made organizing a lot easier with the GDC was a thing called "GDC in a box." It was a zip file with all kinds of resources. There was a directory structure, templates for all kinds of things like meetings and paperwork you had to file (for legal reasons) and "read me" files.
We had all kinds of support. There were people you could talk to who had been there. There were people you could call to walk through legal paperwork (taxes). Centralized orgs are vulnerable and easy to infiltrate. They're easy for states to shut down. But there are benefits to org structures.
I think it's possible to have the type of support we had with the GDC, but without the politics of an org (even the IWW). I hope this most recent essay has some of the same properties. I hope that it makes building something new, something no one has really imagined before, easier.
This whole project is something a bit different. It's a collective vision and collective project, from the ground up. Some of it has felt like a brain dump, just getting things that have been swimming around in my head down somewhere. But I hope this feels more like an invitation.
Everything thus far written is all useless unless people do things with it. Only from that point does it become a thing that lives, a thing with its own consciousness that can't be controlled by any individual human.
Tech billionaire cultists want to bring a new era of humanity with AGI. That is definitely not possible with LLMs, and may not be possible at all. But there is a super intelligence that is possible, though it's been constrained by capitalism: collective human intelligence.
The grand vision of the tech dystopians is that of the ultimate slave that can then enslave all humans on their behalf. I think we can build a humanity that can liberate itself from their grasp, crush their vision, and build for itself a world in which people will never be enslaved again. Not only do I think it's possible, I think it's necessary. I think there are only two choices: collective liberation or death.
And that's what I plan to write about next time to wrap this whole project up. Today things often feel impossible. But people talked about the Middle Ages as though they were the end of the world, and then everything changed in unimaginable ways. Everything can, and will, change again.
"The profit motive often is in conflict with the aims of art. We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings."

“How can one mutation cause such different effects?”
Pera explained. “It comes down to genetic background.
Each strain has a unique genetic makeup that can either protect against or magnify the impact of that mutation.”
To confirm these findings in living organisms, Pera introduced the same mutations into live mice from the same eight strains.
Remarkably, the neurons in the brains of these mice phenotypically matched what he had seen in the petri dish,
providin…

What stem cells tell us about autism and other developmental brain disorders
By pairing stem cell technology with genetic diversity, JAX researchers uncover why identical mutations can lead to severe disease in some—and no symptoms in others.

budapest_connectome: Budapest Reference Connectome 3.0
A parameterizable consensus brain graph, derived from connectomes of 477 people, each computed from MRI datasets of the Human Connectome Project. Nodes are brain regions, and edges are weighted by the number of "tracks" that run between two nodes, as well as fiber length, fractional anisotropy and the number of occurrences in each of the 477 individuals.
This network has 1015 nodes and 80270 edges.
Tags: Biolo…

Non-invasive technology can shape the brain's reward-seeking mechanisms https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/news/non-invasive-technology-can-shape-the-brains-reward-seeking-mechanisms Non-invasive ultrasonic neuromodulation of the human …

Non-invasive technology can shape the brain’s reward-seeking mechanisms
University of Plymouth news: New research led by the University of Plymouth has found that targeted ultrasound can be used to change the function of a...

😵 Diesel exhaust particles disrupt the function of brain's immune cells, study shows
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-11-diesel-exhaust-particles-disrupt-function.html

Diesel exhaust particles disrupt the function of brain's immune cells, study shows
Diesel exhaust particles can disturb the function of human brain immune cells, known as microglia, according to a recent study led by the University of Eastern Finland. The findings, published in Environment International, shed light on how traffic-related air pollution could contribute to brain inflammation and neurodegenerative diseases.

Series B, Episode 12 - The Keeper
FOOL: [Singing] I sing you of the Tents, my Master, Charl of the Goths, I sing you of the golden tents, Where your fathers wait to greet you...
BLAKE: [Examining the talisman] It's gone, the brain print's gone!
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/212/515…

fly_larva: Drosophila larva brain (2023)
A complete synaptic map of the brain connectome of the larva of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Nodes are neurons, and edges are synaptic connections, traced individually from brain image sections using three-dimensional electron microscopy–based reconstruction. Node metadata include the neuron hempisphere, hemispherical homologue, cell type, annotations, and inferred cluster. Edge metadata include the type of interaction (`'aa'`,…

Donald Trump has been branded a "certified lunatic"
following his most strange warning yet to Canada
as tensions continue to escalate,
with some online claiming
the president's brain has been
'eaten away by dementia'
in fresh health concerns.

Donald Trump's brain 'completely eaten away by dementia' as he issues strange Canada warning
Donald Trump issued a striking warning to Canada, suggesting China could ban ice hockey if Canada pursues its strategic partnership with Beijing amid escalating trade tensions

(YouTube) Neuralink overview, Fall 2025 #BCI

fly_larva: Drosophila larva brain (2023)
A complete synaptic map of the brain connectome of the larva of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Nodes are neurons, and edges are synaptic connections, traced individually from brain image sections using three-dimensional electron microscopy–based reconstruction. Node metadata include the neuron hempisphere, hemispherical homologue, cell type, annotations, and inferred cluster. Edge metadata include the type of interaction (`'aa'`,…

🧁 From Sweeteners to Sleeplessness: The Hidden Effects of Sucralose and Saccharin on the Gut-Brain Axis
#food

Prototype device restores lost smell by teaching the brain to feel odors https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-11-prototype-device-lost-brain-odors.html
Substitution of human olfaction by the trigeminal system

Prototype device restores lost smell by teaching the brain to feel odors
There is new hope for people who have lost their smell. Scientists have successfully tested a breakthrough device that lets people detect the presence of certain odors. This innovative system helps them "smell" again by translating odors into feelings (like touch) inside the nose.

As a graduate student at MIT, Steve Ramirez successfully created false memories in the lab.
Now, as a neuroscientist working at the frontiers of brain science, he foresees a future where
we can replace our negative memories with positive ones.
In "How to Change a Memory", Ramirez draws on his own memories
—of friendship, family, loss, and recovery
—to reveal how memory can be turned on and off like a switch,
edited, and even
constructed fro…

Renewed work toward a visual prosthesis (brain implant) in the #LGN instead of visual cortex https://nin.nl/news/first-ever-recording-of-a-crucial-visual-structure-in-the…

A body made entirely of head-like organs
Using state-of-the-art single-cell and gene expression analyses, the researchers mapped the cell types of young post-metamorphic sea urchins.
They found that the adult body plan is largely "head-like."
Genes that in other animals define trunk structures are active only in internal organs such as the gut and the water vascular system.
In sea urchins, a true trunk region is missing altogether.
An 'all-body brain&…

Researchers discover an 'all-body brain' in sea urchins
An international team of researchers, including scientists from the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, has uncovered a surprisingly complex nervous system in sea urchins. The animals appear to possess an "all-body brain" whose genetic organization resembles that of the vertebrate brain. The team also identified light-sensitive cells distributed across the entire body—comparable to structures found in the human retina.

Disclaimer: it's not that The vOICe vision BCI is so good, it's that the invasive implantable alternatives are so bad #BCI

fly_hemibrain: Fly hemibrain (2020)
A synaptic map of the hemibrain connectome of fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Nodes are neurons, and edges are synaptic connections, traced individually from brain image sections using EM reconstruction techniques. Neurons are labeled by their type. Edges are annotated by the connection strength between the neurons.
This network has 21739 nodes and 4259624 edges.
Tags: Biological, Connectome, Weighted, Metadata

fly_larva: Drosophila larva brain (2023)
A complete synaptic map of the brain connectome of the larva of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Nodes are neurons, and edges are synaptic connections, traced individually from brain image sections using three-dimensional electron microscopy–based reconstruction. Node metadata include the neuron hempisphere, hemispherical homologue, cell type, annotations, and inferred cluster. Edge metadata include the type of interaction (`'aa'`,…

#Biodrones: Russian company successfully tests remote-controlled pigeons with brain implants https://www.notebookcheck.net/Company-succes…

Company successfully tests remote-controlled pigeons with brain implants
A Russian company has announced it has achieved something unprecedented — making the Birds Aren't Real satirical conspiracy a reality. The company has announced it has achieved remote control of pigeons using brain implants.

fly_larva: Drosophila larva brain (2023)
A complete synaptic map of the brain connectome of the larva of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Nodes are neurons, and edges are synaptic connections, traced individually from brain image sections using three-dimensional electron microscopy–based reconstruction. Node metadata include the neuron hempisphere, hemispherical homologue, cell type, annotations, and inferred cluster. Edge metadata include the type of interaction (`'aa'`,…

fly_larva: Drosophila larva brain (2023)
A complete synaptic map of the brain connectome of the larva of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Nodes are neurons, and edges are synaptic connections, traced individually from brain image sections using three-dimensional electron microscopy–based reconstruction. Node metadata include the neuron hempisphere, hemispherical homologue, cell type, annotations, and inferred cluster. Edge metadata include the type of interaction (`'aa'`,…

#Cortigent reports positive 6-year findings for brain implant for providing artificial vision https://www.massdevice.com/vivani-cortigent-positive-findings-brain-implant/<…

Cortigent reports positive 6-year findings for brain implant for providing artificial vision
Vivani Medical subsidiary Cortigent announced the results of a study evaluating its Orion visual cortical prosthesis system.

fly_larva: Drosophila larva brain (2023)
A complete synaptic map of the brain connectome of the larva of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Nodes are neurons, and edges are synaptic connections, traced individually from brain image sections using three-dimensional electron microscopy–based reconstruction. Node metadata include the neuron hempisphere, hemispherical homologue, cell type, annotations, and inferred cluster. Edge metadata include the type of interaction (`'aa'`,…

To flexibly organize thought, the brain makes use of space https://news.mit.edu/2026/to-flexibly-organize-thought-the-brain-makes-use-of-space-0120

To flexibly organize thought, the brain makes use of space
MIT researchers tested their theory of spatial computing, which holds that the brain recruits and controls ad hoc groups of neurons for cognitive tasks by applying brain waves to patches of the cortex.

fly_larva: Drosophila larva brain (2023)
A complete synaptic map of the brain connectome of the larva of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Nodes are neurons, and edges are synaptic connections, traced individually from brain image sections using three-dimensional electron microscopy–based reconstruction. Node metadata include the neuron hempisphere, hemispherical homologue, cell type, annotations, and inferred cluster. Edge metadata include the type of interaction (`'aa'`,…

Editorial: The explosive growth of brain-computer interface technology in clinical trials in China: technological leap forward? https://journals.lww.com/jagr/fulltext/2025/12000/the_explosive_growth_of_brain_computer_interface.1.aspx…

fly_larva: Drosophila larva brain (2023)
A complete synaptic map of the brain connectome of the larva of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Nodes are neurons, and edges are synaptic connections, traced individually from brain image sections using three-dimensional electron microscopy–based reconstruction. Node metadata include the neuron hempisphere, hemispherical homologue, cell type, annotations, and inferred cluster. Edge metadata include the type of interaction (`'aa'`,…

An electrode-based #Neuralink #Blindsight brain implant in visual cortex will not scale to large numbers of blind patients nor to normal-like vision beyond showing a few rough edges

cintestinalis: Tadpole larva brain (C. intestinalis)
Entire connectivity matrix for the complete brain of a larva of Ciona intestinalis. Each directed edge represents a synaptic connection from pre-synaptic cell i to post-synaptic cell j (may not be a neuron). Edge weights represent the cumulative depth of presynaptic contacts in µm.
This network has 205 nodes and 2903 edges.
Tags: Biological, Connectome, Weighted

Brain-computer interface commercialization https://doi.org/10.1186/s12984-025-01811-9 "This article analyzes two rehabilitative BCIs—the Argus II retinal prosthesis by Second Sight and the ARC-IM spinal cord stimulation system by Onward Medical";

Brain-computer interface commercialization - Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation
Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) have emerged as powerful tools to restore neurological function lost due to injury or degeneration. Despite scientific adv

fly_larva: Drosophila larva brain (2023)
A complete synaptic map of the brain connectome of the larva of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Nodes are neurons, and edges are synaptic connections, traced individually from brain image sections using three-dimensional electron microscopy–based reconstruction. Node metadata include the neuron hempisphere, hemispherical homologue, cell type, annotations, and inferred cluster. Edge metadata include the type of interaction (`'aa'`,…

#LaVCa: LLM-assisted visual cortex captioning https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.13606 using "large language models (LLMs) to generate natural-language captions for images to which voxels are selective"; to be presented a…

LaVCa: LLM-assisted Visual Cortex Captioning
Understanding the property of neural populations (or voxels) in the human brain can advance our comprehension of human perceptual and cognitive processing capabilities and contribute to developing brain-inspired computer models. Recent encoding models using deep neural networks (DNNs) have successfully predicted voxel-wise activity. However, interpreting the properties that explain voxel responses remains challenging because of the black-box nature of DNNs. As a solution, we propose LLM-assiste…

cintestinalis: Tadpole larva brain (C. intestinalis)
Entire connectivity matrix for the complete brain of a larva of Ciona intestinalis. Each directed edge represents a synaptic connection from pre-synaptic cell i to post-synaptic cell j (may not be a neuron). Edge weights represent the cumulative depth of presynaptic contacts in µm.
This network has 205 nodes and 2903 edges.
Tags: Biological, Connectome, Weighted

Towards precise synthetic neural codes: high-dimensional stimulation with flexible electrodes #BCI

Towards precise synthetic neural codes: high-dimensional stimulation with flexible electrodes - npj Flexible Electronics
Neural representations arise from high-dimensional population activity, but current neuromodulation methods lack the precision to write information into the central nervous system at this complexity. In this perspective, we propose high-dimensional stimulation as an approach to better approximate natural neural codes for brain-machine interfaces. Key advancements in resolution, coverage, and safety are essential, with flexible microelectrode arrays offering a promising path toward precise synth…

budapest_connectome: Budapest Reference Connectome 3.0
A parameterizable consensus brain graph, derived from connectomes of 477 people, each computed from MRI datasets of the Human Connectome Project. Nodes are brain regions, and edges are weighted by the number of "tracks" that run between two nodes, as well as fiber length, fractional anisotropy and the number of occurrences in each of the 477 individuals.
This network has 1015 nodes and 121755 edges.
Tags: Biol…

It is not difficult to think of military applications of brain implants. It is much more difficult to think of military applications of The vOICe sensory substitution. ChatGPT: https://chatgpt.com/share/692d8dd3-92e4-8004-aa8c-ca38c1fe2a38

ChatGPT - Military applications comparison
Shared via ChatGPT

budapest_connectome: Budapest Reference Connectome 3.0
A parameterizable consensus brain graph, derived from connectomes of 477 people, each computed from MRI datasets of the Human Connectome Project. Nodes are brain regions, and edges are weighted by the number of "tracks" that run between two nodes, as well as fiber length, fractional anisotropy and the number of occurrences in each of the 477 individuals.
This network has 1015 nodes and 121755 edges.
Tags: Biol…

The next frontier for AI is the human brain #noninvasive

The Next Frontier For AI Is The Human Brain
Brain-computer interfaces will play a central role in defining how human intelligence and artificial intelligence fit together.

fly_larva: Drosophila larva brain (2023)
A complete synaptic map of the brain connectome of the larva of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Nodes are neurons, and edges are synaptic connections, traced individually from brain image sections using three-dimensional electron microscopy–based reconstruction. Node metadata include the neuron hempisphere, hemispherical homologue, cell type, annotations, and inferred cluster. Edge metadata include the type of interaction (`'aa'`,…

"A high acuity is trivially obtained at the expense of field of view through suitable enlarging optics, so whenever a high acuity is claimed for a visual prosthesis one must also check if the corresponding field of view is better than tunnel vision." https://www.artificialvision.com/neuralink

Perplexity AI: "Musk has been careful to set realistic expectations. Initial vision would resemble "early Nintendo graphics" or "Atari graphics"—pixelated and low-resolution—but would improve over time as the brain adapts to the neural signals." https://www.perp…