Why the fruit fly
The fruit fly has the first adult brain whose wiring is fully mapped: 138,639 neurons, reconstructed by the FlyWire consortium in 2024. It sees, finds its way, learns smells and controls a body.
Our approach
We take this brain's wiring as it was mapped and change no connection. For each task we connect the machine to the fly's senses and to the neurons that carry its commands, and tune how its neurons respond over time.
Our goal
We want to understand what the fly's brain can do when it drives a machine, and what of it is useful as software.
138,639neuronsFlyWire 2024
15.1Mconnectionsfrom 54.5M synapses, unchanged
1,581facetsboth compound eyes
1,299descending neuronscarry the fly's commands to the nerve cord