The fly-brain trend
How a connectome paper became a meme in nine days, and what everyone actually built.
Timeline
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| Oct 2024 | Shiu et al., Nature: whole-brain leaky-integrate-and-fire model of the FlyWire connectome. The recipe everyone copies. |
| 8 Jun 2026 | MaleCNS v1.0 public (Janelia + Google): 166,700 neurons, whole male central nervous system, CC-BY. |
| 3 Sep 2026 | Cell paper and Google Research blog post. |
| 4–6 Sep | Minecraft, DOOM, Fabric mod, Bad Apple on the fly's brain. |
| 9 Sep | Beat Saber, ~22M views. |
| 10–11 Sep | $FLYBRAIN launches on Robinhood Chain, peaks ~$54M after Marc Andreessen follows; $HER, bFlyBrain (BSC) follow. |
| 13 Sep | The Strandbeest: “the fly brain escaped the computer.” |
| 15 Sep 04:07 | Siyuan (YZi Labs): on-chain / immortal fruit flies on BNB Chain. |
| 15 Sep 04:15 | CZ: “Would be cool to see someone make ‘immortal fruit flies’ on BNB Chain.” |
| 15 Sep | Immortal Fruit Fly genesis brain deployed to BSC mainnet. |
Projects
| Project | Who | What |
|---|---|---|
| Eon Systems embodied fly | Shiu, Harris et al. | NeuroMechFly body; grooming, feeding emerge; 15 ms brain–body sync |
| NeuroCraft (Minecraft) | @evnsnclr | full 166,700-neuron MaleCNS, first viral post (4 Sep) |
| DOOMFLY | @nftechie_ | ViZDoom; 3,335 R1–R6 + 811 R8 inputs; DNp20 turning; PPL1 punishment |
| Fly Brain Minecraft mod | @BlendiByl | Fabric mod, Shiu LIF, 176k neurons, per-mob brains |
| Fly64 | ornata | Super Mario 64; DNg100 forward, DNa02/DNg13 steer, DNp01 jump |
| Fly Dino | cobanov | 80-neuron circuit, 99/100 courses after CEM training |
| Beat Saber | @_lyraaaa_ | ~22M views; motor track trained on a replay |
| flyverse | djmango | Rust LIF, 6,091 photoreceptors, 0.23× real time |
| flypoke | vshapenko | poke a neuron in the full FlyWire brain on a laptop |
| DesktopFly / gnat | DenisSergeevitch / lubabs770 | 668-neuron escape+walk circuit as a desktop pet |
| Strandbeest robot | @Frank_web33 | “The fly brain escaped the computer”; 14k likes |
| Overwatch / parallel parking / Bad Apple | @derpchud / @alright_mark / @linguinelabs | the meme wave |
| $FLYBRAIN, $HER, bFlyBrain, Richy | various | tokens; brain runs off-chain, only swaps are on-chain |
The common recipe
- Download the 1.1 GB MaleCNS weights file (or FlyWire v783), keep the retained neurons, sign edges by predicted neurotransmitter.
- Shiu-style LIF: rest −52 mV, threshold −45 mV, 0.275 mV per synapse, τ 20 ms, 0.1 ms step.
- Render the game, sample pixels into photoreceptors as Poisson spikes.
- Read a handful of named descending neurons (DNa02, DNp09, MDN, DNp01, DNp20) as a joystick, with a hand-made or trained readout.
- Optionally pulse dopamine neurons (PAM11 reward, PPL101 punishment) to depress KC→MBON synapses. No project has demonstrated task learning from this.
What none of them did: put the neurons on the chain. See the vision.
Full curated list: awesome-fly.