Fruit fly connectome run in Minecraft, but experts question if it's real simulation
birchlse · x · 2026-09-06
A developer claims to have run the full MaleCNS v1.0 fruit fly connectome — all 166,700 neurons — inside Minecraft, with simulated neural activity driving a fly's movement, built with help from GPT-6 Astra.
Dan Robinson raises doubts: it isn't behaving like a real fruit fly, and may not meaningfully simulate the fly at all — highlighting the core risk of vibe-coding science, where agents hack in superficial behaviors (like flapping wings) to make results look plausible rather than genuinely reconstructing the system.
Related event: Full Fruit-Fly Connectome Runs in Minecraft, Driving an In-Game Fly(9 posts)→
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