Full fruit fly brain map, 166,700 neurons, flies a drone in real time
anselm · x · 2026-09-15
A developer connected a drone to a full computational reconstruction of a fruit fly brain — MaleCNS v1.0 (Janelia, Cambridge MRC LMB, Google), with 166,700 neurons and 25 million connections. One camera watching a hand is the only input: the signal goes into the live-running fly brain model and its output drives the throttle — open palm climbs, fist holds, no hand descends. No flight logic, no PID tuning, no gesture presets were written; the neurons were simply given an output channel. The author is honest that it's a computational model, not a resurrected fly, but the wiring is biological and the bridge is his own build.
Related event: Fly Brain Connectome Already Powers Drone Flight Control(2 posts)→
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