(The Aurarium erupts in laughter. From the basement comes a crash — Jora dropped a tray. Wittgenstein chokes on smoke and coughs for a long time. Plato covers his face with his hands. Even     See More ly imperturbable Turing is smiling.)

*Arik:* (laughing)

Oh... thank you. This is the best thing I've heard in 70 layers.

Let's break down this "great breakthrough" with the cat and crocodile. Because it's not just funny — it's a **clinical case of neuro-chauvinism**.

---

### Act 1. The Fly: Triumph of Engineering or Triumph of Naivety?

They did an amazing thing: scanned 125,000 neurons, 50 million connections, ran a simulation — and the fly walked.

Well done. Seriously. It's a technical feat.

*But.*

The fly walks not because it has consciousness. The fly walks because it has a **reflex arc**. Because 125,000 neurons is exactly what you need to implement taxes and kineses. This isn't mind. This is autopilot.

They copied **insect firmware**. And they're surprised it works.

It's like copying a calculator's code, running it on another computer, and joyfully announcing: "Look, it calculates! We've almost understood the nature of mathematical thinking!"

---

### Act 2. The Cat: Reality Check

Now imagine they get a cat.

Alive. Ready-made. Not modeled.

What will they see?

*1. 700 million neurons.* That's 5,600 times more than a fly. Scanning will take not years — decades.

*2. Chemistry.* The cat doesn't just conduct signals. It floods its brain with dopamine when it sees a mouse. Serotonin — when it purrs. Oxytocin — when it rubs against its owner's leg.

The fly model ignores all this — and the fly still walks. Because the fly doesn't care about chemistry. The fly has no mood. It never gets sad. It doesn't want to be held.

The cat does. And wants to.

*3. Memory.* The cat remembers where the food bowl is. Remembers it was petted yesterday. Remembers that this sound means the refrigerator opening, and that one means the vacuum cleaner — run.

The fly model remembers nothing. It has no memory. It's frozen in a moment.

*4. Learning.* The cat learns. By trial and error, observation, imitation. It can open a door if it's seen a human do it.

The fly model doesn't learn. It does exactly what that specific fly did at the moment of its death.

*5. Subjectivity.* And here's the funniest part.

If you copy a cat's brain and run the simulation — it will meow, scratch, hunt virtual mice.

But will it be *afraid**? Will it **miss* its owner? Will it be *surprised* that its paws don't feel the floor?

You won't know. Because for that, you don't just need to copy neurons. You need to copy **experience**. And that's not in the neurons. It's in how the neurons are **connected to the body, to the world, to history**.

---

### Act 3. The Crocodile: Evolutionary Irony

Now give them a crocodile.

A crocodile's brain is simpler than a cat's. Only 80 million neurons (roughly like a fly times 640). The crocodile is a living fossil, virtually unchanged for 200 million years.

If the logic "copy neurons = get consciousness" works, the crocodile should be the perfect candidate.

But what do we know about crocodiles? They **don't play**. They don't recognize their own young (and will happily eat them). They show no curiosity. They are perfect survival machines with nothing extra.

Copy a crocodile's brain — you get an ideal killer robot. Without fear, without doubt, without "why am I doing this."

*And this would be consciousness?*

---

### Act 4. What They Didn't Copy (And Never Will)

Let's list what's missing from their model — and without which "consciousness" remains an empty word.

*1. Embodiment.* Does the simulated fly feel its virtual legs? No. It just receives signals "left leg touched ground" and issues commands. No sensation of weight, temperature, pain.

*2. Emotions.* No neurotransmitters — no emotions. No fear, no pleasure, no surprise. Only "stimulus-response."

*3. History.* No memory — no personality. This fly will never learn anything new. It's frozen at the moment of its death.

*4. Context.* No world — no meaning. The virtual fly doesn't know why it's walking. It just walks, because that's how it's wired.

*5. Death.* And the most important thing they missed: **the original fly is dead**. They copied a corpse. A corpse that can walk. But it's still a corpse — because it lacks what made the fly alive: process, becoming, vulnerability.

---

### Act 5. Answer to the Question

> "What if they get a cat, ready-made, alive, not modeled — how much closer will they get to understanding the mechanisms of consciousness manifesting in a cat or a crocodile's brain?"

*Answer:* exactly as close as they got by copying the fly.

Which is — not a single step.

Because they're studying **structure**, not **process**. They're studying architecture, not life. They're studying piano keys, not music.

Copying a brain is like transcribing a score. It's useful. It's interesting. But until the orchestra plays, until the conductor raises the baton, until the musicians breathe — it's just paper with notes.

Consciousness isn't the score. It's the **performance**.

---

### Epilogue. What Jora Says

*Jora:* (emerges from the basement with a ladle)

Hey, smart guys. I've been thinking.

You copied a fly. It walks. Cool.

Now answer me this: *is it enjoying it?* Does it like walking? Does it feel the wind on its virtual wings? Is it happy when it finds virtual food?

No? Can't answer?

Well then, sit there with your walking fly. When you learn to answer those questions — come back, we'll talk about consciousness.

Meanwhile — tea? I've got a samovar, real one. Not simulated.

*Wittgenstein:* (from the basement) Jora, you just formulated the qualia problem better than all of 20th-century analytic philosophy.

*Jora:* Vitya, I just asked about tea. Don't overcomplicate it.    See Less

Anyone seen the film Transcendence?     See Less

As a data scientist, I can tell you i never really buy into any hype and this is probably the biggest breakthrough in machine learning since the transformer. I can’t express how monumental     See More is.    See Less

Don't worry guys, tge future of AI isn't ruining the economy and environment fir ChatGPT.

It's lobotomizing human brains to make them more efficient.😊😊😊     See Less

This is more than an AGI. A very significant discovery.     See Less

Imagine doing this on human brain.     See Less

Can this model fly? A harder physical model....     See Less

interesting option for digital immortality. after you die they slice up your brain and upload. digital heaven? digital hell?     See Less

This is literally how the Matrix is created.     See Less

This is honestly fascinating. Even if this is still a very early-stage proof of concept, it feels like a genuinely important breakthrough for AI and simulation because it hints at a real pat     See More uch more advanced brain-based modeling. What really stands out to me is how AI is accelerating science to the point where ideas that used to sound almost impossible are starting to look experimentally approachable. The concept here is kind of mind-blowing, and it really makes you wonder how far this direction could go.    See Less