Simulated Fruit Fly Engages in Bitcoin Trading
In a rather unconventional turn of events, a simulated brain of a fruit fly has taken up trading Bitcoin, captivating the attention of the cryptocurrency community. Alex Wormuth, an engineer at Coinbase, has developed a project called “Stonkfly,” which utilizes a complex digital model of a male fruit fly’s nervous system to engage in cryptocurrency trading. Wormuth initially invested $100 into this unusual experiment, and astonishingly, within just a day, the simulation recorded a profit of $1.
Mechanics of the Simulation
The intriguing project leverages the newly released MaleCNS v1.0 connectome, which outlines how a fruit fly’s brain is wired. It’s crucial to note that this is not a living insect functioning at a trading desk; instead, Stonkfly translates real-time Bitcoin market data from Coinbase into a visual format, which is then processed by simulated sensory neurons modeled after the fruit fly’s visual system.
In terms of mechanics, successful trades trigger stimulation of 15 specific PAM11 dopamine neurons within the simulation. Conversely, if a loss occurs, the system activates two PPL101 neurons, which are linked to negative sensory responses. However, Wormuth cautions that the fly’s early $1 profit may simply be due to market fluctuations rather than any meaningful trading strategy.
Neuroscience Breakthroughs and Future Implications
This unique endeavor coincides with recent breakthroughs in neuroscience, specifically the unveiling of a comprehensive connectome that maps the adult male fruit fly’s brain, consisting of roughly 166,700 neurons. This important achievement, made possible through collaborations involving AI from Google Research and others, has sparked a series of similar experiments using fly-brain models. For example, Wormuth had previously crafted a project named DOOMFLY, allowing the insect neuron model to play the famous video game Doom. Other developers have since extended these models into various gaming contexts, including Beat Saber and Minecraft.
Limitations of the Simulation
While Stonkfly demonstrates the fly’s potential in this unconventional trading scenario, it’s important to acknowledge the limitations of this simulation. Processes like neurotransmitter functions and gene expressions, which play crucial roles in actual biological brains, cannot be replicated in their entirety within the current model.
