Full Fruit-Fly Connectome Runs in Minecraft, Driving an In-Game Fly
Georgia Tech graduate student Evan Smith (evnsnclr, also credited as Evan Sinclair Smith in reposts) announced that he successfully ran the complete MaleCNS v1.0 male fruit-fly whole-brain connectome in Minecraft—covering all 166,700 neurons and roughly 25.58 million directed edges (reported by 新智元 as 125 million synapses)—and used the simulated neural activity to directly drive the movement of an in-game fly, with real-time visualization of which neurons fire and what the fly decides to do. After the demo went viral, the author clarified he was not simulating the fly's consciousness or uploading a living brain into the game: the implementation is based on a reconstructed wiring diagram with simplified activity-propagation rules.
Confirmed
- evnsnclr (Evan Smith) announced running the MaleCNS v1.0 connectome with 166,700 neurons and 25.58 million directed edges in Minecraft, driving an in-game fly; the NeuroCraft Fly project page is live, V1 is still in development, and code plus a mod are planned
- Per Dan Jeffries and 新智元, the project was reportedly built with OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra; 新智元 says it took about two days, and that the connectome itself took HHMI Janelia, Cambridge and Google ten years and 44 person-years of manual proofreading
- Per paulcal, the original author clarified the demo is a reconstructed wiring diagram plus simplified propagation rules, not consciousness simulation or a living-brain upload; Polymarket confirmed the brain-science-meets-sandbox pairing drew massive attention
Unconfirmed
- Some researchers question whether it is merely a superficial simulation; the fidelity to real neural circuits has no independent verification (relayed by birchlse)
- Some reposts credit a different developer (menhguin); the original posts by evnsnclr are authoritative
Why it matters
- A rare attempt to port a complete model-organism whole-brain connectome into a general-purpose game environment, showing how connectome data can pair with real-time interactive simulation
- The author's clarification draws a line between 'running a connectome map' and 'simulating consciousness,' helping the public interpret such demos correctly
- If the simulation depth holds up, it could offer neuroscience a low-cost interactive experimental vehicle; if it is only surface-level, it suggests such cross-medium ports need stricter scientific evaluation
2026-09-05 ~ 2026-09-07 · 9 related posts
- Episode 1: AI Helps Map Complete Fruit Fly Connectome: 166,000+ Neurons, Largest Yet(2026-09-04, 12 posts)
- Episode 2: Full Fruit-Fly Connectome Runs in Minecraft, Driving an In-Game Fly(2026-09-05, 9 posts)
- Episode 3: Google Maps Entire Fruit Fly Brain with 166,000 Neurons(2026-09-06, 4 posts)
- Episode 4: Full Fruit Fly Connectome with 166,700 Neurons Runs Inside Minecraft(2026-09-08, 3 posts)
- Episode 5: Fly Brain Connectome Simulation Plays Beat Saber in Real Time(2026-09-09, 5 posts)
- Episode 6: Google and HHMI Release Complete Male Fruit Fly Brain Connectome(2026-09-09, 7 posts)
- Episode 7: Viral 'Fly Brain Plays Beat Saber' Turns Out to Be Overfit Replay(2026-09-10, 3 posts)
- Episode 8: Fruit Fly Connectome Experiments Raise Consciousness Ethics Concerns(2026-09-11, 3 posts)
- Episode 9: Fly Brain Connectome Mapped — and Made to Play Smash Bros(2026-09-11, 2 posts)
- Episode 10: Google Maps Complete Male Fruit Fly Brain Connectome(2026-09-13, 4 posts)
- Episode 11: Fruit fly brain connectome wired into walking Strandbeest robot(2026-09-13, 3 posts)
- Episode 12: Complete Fruit Fly Brain Connectome Flies Drones with Zero Flight Code(2026-09-14, 5 posts)
- Episode 13: Google and partners release complete adult fruit fly brain connectome(2026-09-15, 3 posts)
- Episode 14: Fruit Fly Brain Uploaded to Robot Drives Autonomous Behavior(2026-09-19, 2 posts)
Primary sources
- Full Fruit Fly Connectome With 166,700 Neurons Runs Inside Minecraft, Driving a Fly's Movement — Dan_Jeffries1 ·
- Viral fruit-fly connectome Minecraft demo: author clarifies it's not consciousness upload — paul_cal ·
- Grad Student Ports the 166,700-Neuron Fly Connectome Into Minecraft in Two Days Using GPT-6 — 新智元 ·
- [source] Full Fruit Fly Connectome With 166,700 Neurons Runs Inside Minecraft, Driving a Fly's Movement — Dan_Jeffries1 · 2026-09-05
- Developer runs 166,700-neuron fruit fly brain simulation inside Minecraft using GPT-6 Astra — Polymarket · 2026-09-06
- Fruit fly connectome run in Minecraft, but experts question if it's real simulation — birchlse · 2026-09-06
- [source] Grad Student Ports the 166,700-Neuron Fly Connectome Into Minecraft in Two Days Using GPT-6 — 新智元 · 2026-09-06
- [source] Viral fruit-fly connectome Minecraft demo: author clarifies it's not consciousness upload — paul_cal · 2026-09-06
- Full fruit fly connectome with 166,700 neurons runs inside Minecraft, driving simulated movement — burny_tech · 2026-09-07
3 near-duplicate retellings: ZeroStateReflex · lfschiavo · burny_tech