One fly · one engine · one 1988 Mazda 323 GTX
Joelio's
Garage
A fruit fly in coveralls tries to drop a turbo engine into a red 1988 Mazda 323 GTX. He flinches, he overshoots, he sips a soda and thinks. Every flinch and every shove comes from his own simulated spikes.
How the brain works the hoist
- Flinch. The engine swings on the chain. Swinging toward Joelio, it looms in both eyes (LC4 and LPLC2, up to 150 Hz). A 100 ms window with 32 or more giant-fiber (DNp01) spikes and he lets go of the chain.
- Nudge. Lowering into the bay, the side the engine drifts toward looms. That fires the opposite DNa01/DNa02, and each spike of difference gives the hanging engine a 2 cm/s shove. It can overshoot.
- Ponder. A soda: sugar receptors (LB3) at 55 Hz drive the feeding motor neurons MN10 and MNx01.
- Game-side. Hoist geometry, the swing, chain twist, lowering speed, the tolerance on the engine mounts, and the ideas.
Fly brain video
Joelio's Garage
One fruit fly in coveralls, one engine hoist, one 1988 Mazda 323 GTX.
Joelio is a complete FlyWire fruit fly brain, 138,639 spiking neurons, simulated with the Shiu et al. 2024 model. Nothing is trained. He hoists an engine, rolls it to the car, and lowers it into the bay. When the swinging engine looms at him, his giant fiber, the fly's escape reflex, can fire hard enough that he flinches and lets go. When it drifts toward the radiator or the firewall, that side looms, his DNa turning neurons fire on the other side, and he shoves it back, sometimes too hard.
Between attempts he sits on a bucket and sips a soda. The sugar drives his feeding neurons, shown on screen; it changes nothing. Then he has an idea. The ideas are scripted and each one changes a game-side number, like a gentler push, safety goggles that dim what looms, or a slower lowering speed.
| Attempt | Idea going in | Result | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | (first go) | Flinched, let go of the chain | giant fiber 32 spikes in 100 ms (≥ 32) while rolling |
| 2 | Push the hoist... gently? | Flinched, let go of the chain | giant fiber 33 spikes in 100 ms (≥ 32) while lowering |
| 3 | Safety goggles! Nothing to flinch at. (They fog up.) | Clonk: missed the mounts | 3.2 cm off, needed within ±2.5 cm |
| 4 | Lower it slower. | Flinched, let go of the chain | giant fiber 32 spikes in 100 ms (≥ 32) while lowering |
| 5 | Unbolt the radiator support. | Flinched, let go of the chain | giant fiber 32 spikes in 100 ms (≥ 32) while lowering |
| 6 | Read the manual. Chalk marks on the floor. | It's in! | 0.2 cm off, needed within ±4.0 cm |
What is real and what is not. The flinches and the shoves come from Joelio's own simulated spikes. The hoist, the physics, the ideas and the camera are game rules. This is one of six simulated runs, picked for its length and its mix of fails. His brain never ran away.
Music: an original Eurobeat track synthesized for this video (garage/render/eurobeat.py), no samples. The shouted hooks are macOS text-to-speech reading original lyrics.