James Vornov
@jjvornov.bsky.social
A follow-up about brain-computer interfaces with a focus on the history of pacemakers and cochlear implants. BCI tech is in its infancy, and while proving useful for patients, the economics and ongoing support may be tough.
Thanks to my #neuroskyence commenters for leading me down this path.
Thanks to my #neuroskyence commenters for leading me down this path.
From Shoe Polish Tins to Brain Implants: Heros and Broken Promises
We know that BCIs work and hold great promise, but lets see what history tells us about the journey
open.substack.com
August 13, 2025 at 1:53 PM
A follow-up about brain-computer interfaces with a focus on the history of pacemakers and cochlear implants. BCI tech is in its infancy, and while proving useful for patients, the economics and ongoing support may be tough.
Thanks to my #neuroskyence commenters for leading me down this path.
Thanks to my #neuroskyence commenters for leading me down this path.
Did you know that it's been more than 20 years since the first successful use of a brain computer interface to restore function to a patient with spinal cord injury? It seems our technology is finally catching up to the promise on both the computer and interface sides.
#neuroskyence
#neuroskyence
Are Brain Computer Interfaces Really Our Future?
We’re making real progress providing brain computer interfaces for patients paralyzed by ALS and spinal cord injury. Less invasive approaches are looking promising.
open.substack.com
July 15, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Did you know that it's been more than 20 years since the first successful use of a brain computer interface to restore function to a patient with spinal cord injury? It seems our technology is finally catching up to the promise on both the computer and interface sides.
#neuroskyence
#neuroskyence
This week my post is moving back into the brain science of personal identity, looking at cognitive dissonance. I’m trying to explore the what’s going on in the brain in everyday life.
#Neuroskyence
#Neuroskyence
When Models Collide: How the Brain Deals with Cognitive Dissonance
Our actions often conflict with our beliefs. The discomfort we feel isn’t moral failure — it’s what happens when valence systems disrupt the brain’s coherent story of personal identity.
open.substack.com
July 2, 2025 at 3:07 PM
This week my post is moving back into the brain science of personal identity, looking at cognitive dissonance. I’m trying to explore the what’s going on in the brain in everyday life.
#Neuroskyence
#Neuroskyence
The neuroscience tale of how purple, really magenta, is a synthetic color not found on the spectrum. We don't perceive the environment, but become aware of the brain's processing of color. I conclude, Kant was right, there is a priori knowledge. But he never realized it was neuronal.
#neuroskyence
#neuroskyence
If Purple isn’t real, then what is?
Let’s talk epistemology. Actually, let’s have magenta and cyan bid farewell to epistemology altogether
open.substack.com
June 24, 2025 at 3:05 PM
The neuroscience tale of how purple, really magenta, is a synthetic color not found on the spectrum. We don't perceive the environment, but become aware of the brain's processing of color. I conclude, Kant was right, there is a priori knowledge. But he never realized it was neuronal.
#neuroskyence
#neuroskyence
A change of pace post. How does the brain bind red to bicycle and blue to car when looking at a complex scene if color is extracted in one cortical area and form in another? And object recognition in yet another. Looking at Scholte and de Haan's recent review and going a bit further
#neuroskyence
#neuroskyence
Bye Bye Binding: Boosted and Redundant Maps
The binding problem goes away not because we solved it, but because we never needed it to begin with.
open.substack.com
June 17, 2025 at 2:50 PM
A change of pace post. How does the brain bind red to bicycle and blue to car when looking at a complex scene if color is extracted in one cortical area and form in another? And object recognition in yet another. Looking at Scholte and de Haan's recent review and going a bit further
#neuroskyence
#neuroskyence
New post: How cortical maps, predictive models, and Searle’s Chinese Room describe a brain with no central observer. This is actually an update to a very old post on my site that gets a few search hits a month for “homunculus”. Love this 3D model.
#neuroskyence
open.substack.com/pub/jjvornov...
#neuroskyence
open.substack.com/pub/jjvornov...
The Brain Doesn’t Need a Homunculus—It Is One
The mind arises from a collection of many maps, all working coherently to provide a model of the self in the environment. But it is the maps, no one is looking.
open.substack.com
June 10, 2025 at 5:17 PM
New post: How cortical maps, predictive models, and Searle’s Chinese Room describe a brain with no central observer. This is actually an update to a very old post on my site that gets a few search hits a month for “homunculus”. Love this 3D model.
#neuroskyence
open.substack.com/pub/jjvornov...
#neuroskyence
open.substack.com/pub/jjvornov...
This week I delve a little deeper into the idea that our single threaded awareness is required for a real time regulator of behavior. The brain has to predict a unified, consistent model of self in the world in order to achieve goals.
#neuroskyence
open.substack.com/pub/jjvornov...
#neuroskyence
open.substack.com/pub/jjvornov...
The Unity of Experience: How the free energy principle builds reality
We only experience a single, stable perception at a time. How bistable viusal figures and Karl Friston’s big idea explain how we keep ourselves in an uncertain world
open.substack.com
May 28, 2025 at 3:39 PM
This week I delve a little deeper into the idea that our single threaded awareness is required for a real time regulator of behavior. The brain has to predict a unified, consistent model of self in the world in order to achieve goals.
#neuroskyence
open.substack.com/pub/jjvornov...
#neuroskyence
open.substack.com/pub/jjvornov...
Here's my neurologist's take on the Severance show's concept of the divided self. While one couldn't literally divide the self so neatly, it's a clever assembly of the brain's abilities to divide memory and identity as seen in the clinic.
#neuroskyence
jjvornov.substack.com/p/im-a-neuro...
#neuroskyence
jjvornov.substack.com/p/im-a-neuro...
To this neurologist, Severence got self-identity exactly right
The basis of time-stamped memory, fractured identity, and the illusion of the unified mind.
jjvornov.substack.com
May 21, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Here's my neurologist's take on the Severance show's concept of the divided self. While one couldn't literally divide the self so neatly, it's a clever assembly of the brain's abilities to divide memory and identity as seen in the clinic.
#neuroskyence
jjvornov.substack.com/p/im-a-neuro...
#neuroskyence
jjvornov.substack.com/p/im-a-neuro...
This week I explore the bottlenecks in human cognition. It is easy to see that the simplest computer can beat the fastest video gamer, but there’s a reason why slow, single-channel experiences of one thing at a time are the essence of awareness.
#neuroskyence
#neuroscience
#neuroskyence
#neuroscience
Why the simplest computer is faster than any human?
The bottlenecks in our brains create awareness, meaning and coherence
jjvornov.substack.com
May 12, 2025 at 1:31 PM
This week I explore the bottlenecks in human cognition. It is easy to see that the simplest computer can beat the fastest video gamer, but there’s a reason why slow, single-channel experiences of one thing at a time are the essence of awareness.
#neuroskyence
#neuroscience
#neuroskyence
#neuroscience
This week's post is out. Digging deeper into the uploaded mind, I've left science fiction to look at progress in simulating C. elegans in silico. Another example of map ≠ territory. But how top-down ML constrains models. Simulate, don't copy!
#Neuroskyence
open.substack.com/pub/jjvornov...
#Neuroskyence
open.substack.com/pub/jjvornov...
You want to upload a human mind, but you can't even upload a worm.
The success and failure of the C. elegans simulation project points the way
open.substack.com
May 5, 2025 at 1:36 PM
This week's post is out. Digging deeper into the uploaded mind, I've left science fiction to look at progress in simulating C. elegans in silico. Another example of map ≠ territory. But how top-down ML constrains models. Simulate, don't copy!
#Neuroskyence
open.substack.com/pub/jjvornov...
#Neuroskyence
open.substack.com/pub/jjvornov...
I really don't think you can copy a mind into a computer. It would be like uploading a toaster. No toast. We can get a very convincing emulation, but not the person. A machine mind, on its own terms and talents, can be more capable that a brain.
#neuroskyence
jjvornov.substack.com/p/why-copyin...
#neuroskyence
jjvornov.substack.com/p/why-copyin...
Why copying the mind into computers is a dead end
Mind uploading not only fails to preserve self identity, it blinds us to the richer possibilities of machine minds as tools.
jjvornov.substack.com
April 29, 2025 at 12:50 PM
I really don't think you can copy a mind into a computer. It would be like uploading a toaster. No toast. We can get a very convincing emulation, but not the person. A machine mind, on its own terms and talents, can be more capable that a brain.
#neuroskyence
jjvornov.substack.com/p/why-copyin...
#neuroskyence
jjvornov.substack.com/p/why-copyin...
I was listening to @seanmcarroll.bsky.social podcast with Annaka Harris. I realized that "split brain" patients really just were split cortex. The thalamocortical network was intact on both sides, unifying experience. We get so focused on awareness being cortical we forget mechanism
#neuroskyence
#neuroskyence
April 28, 2025 at 2:13 PM
I was listening to @seanmcarroll.bsky.social podcast with Annaka Harris. I realized that "split brain" patients really just were split cortex. The thalamocortical network was intact on both sides, unifying experience. We get so focused on awareness being cortical we forget mechanism
#neuroskyence
#neuroskyence
Can we emulate a brain region—not by modeling every neuron and synapse—but by mimicking its spike traffic?
Treat it like a black box. Record all the axons in and out.
That’s the core idea behind the Large Axonal Model (LAM).
A biologically grounded shortcut to brain emulation.
#Neuroskyence 👇
Treat it like a black box. Record all the axons in and out.
That’s the core idea behind the Large Axonal Model (LAM).
A biologically grounded shortcut to brain emulation.
#Neuroskyence 👇
April 22, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Can we emulate a brain region—not by modeling every neuron and synapse—but by mimicking its spike traffic?
Treat it like a black box. Record all the axons in and out.
That’s the core idea behind the Large Axonal Model (LAM).
A biologically grounded shortcut to brain emulation.
#Neuroskyence 👇
Treat it like a black box. Record all the axons in and out.
That’s the core idea behind the Large Axonal Model (LAM).
A biologically grounded shortcut to brain emulation.
#Neuroskyence 👇
Finally in this series on mind uploading and personal identity, we have the progressive replacement approach. I've made it the tale of replacing Stephen Hawking's brain with neuromorphic modules, leveraging real and imagined technology.
#neuroskyence
jjvornov.substack.com/p/saving-haw...
#neuroskyence
jjvornov.substack.com/p/saving-haw...
Saving Hawking’s Brain for Eternity
How progressive brain replacement could preserve personal identity and knowledge in a machine mind
jjvornov.substack.com
April 16, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Finally in this series on mind uploading and personal identity, we have the progressive replacement approach. I've made it the tale of replacing Stephen Hawking's brain with neuromorphic modules, leveraging real and imagined technology.
#neuroskyence
jjvornov.substack.com/p/saving-haw...
#neuroskyence
jjvornov.substack.com/p/saving-haw...
Next up is an exploration of what it would take to create an integrated emulation of the brain. I used the show Caprica as a jumping off point because it puts a human avatar in a machine mind with bad results.
#neuroskyence
jjvornov.substack.com/p/building-t...
#neuroskyence
jjvornov.substack.com/p/building-t...
Building the computer simulated mind
A realistic machine minds needs preferences and memory. Plus an appropriate body.
jjvornov.substack.com
April 8, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Next up is an exploration of what it would take to create an integrated emulation of the brain. I used the show Caprica as a jumping off point because it puts a human avatar in a machine mind with bad results.
#neuroskyence
jjvornov.substack.com/p/building-t...
#neuroskyence
jjvornov.substack.com/p/building-t...
A really nice summary of how birds took a different path toward intelligence than mammals. I wrote about his on my Substack:
jjvornov.substack.com/p/is-anybody...
#neuroskyence
www.quantamagazine.org/intelligence...
jjvornov.substack.com/p/is-anybody...
#neuroskyence
www.quantamagazine.org/intelligence...
Intelligence Evolved at Least Twice in Vertebrate Animals | Quanta Magazine
Complex neural circuits likely arose independently in birds and mammals, suggesting that vertebrates evolved intelligence multiple times.
https://www.quantamagazine.org/intelligence-evolved-at-least-twice-in-vertebrate-animals-20250407/#:~:text=a%20400%2Dgram-,brain,-%2C”%20said%20Onur%20Güntürkün
April 7, 2025 at 3:59 PM
A really nice summary of how birds took a different path toward intelligence than mammals. I wrote about his on my Substack:
jjvornov.substack.com/p/is-anybody...
#neuroskyence
www.quantamagazine.org/intelligence...
jjvornov.substack.com/p/is-anybody...
#neuroskyence
www.quantamagazine.org/intelligence...
Continuing to explore personal identity through the lens of mind uploading: if consciousness arises from the dynamic, embodied complexity of brain structure and function, can a map—no matter how precise—ever be the self? Continuity matters. #neuroskyence
jjvornov.substack.com/p/the-myth-o...
jjvornov.substack.com/p/the-myth-o...
The Myth of the Uploaded Mind
Persistence of personal identity and consciousness isn't possible in simulation. The map is not the territory.
jjvornov.substack.com
April 4, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Continuing to explore personal identity through the lens of mind uploading: if consciousness arises from the dynamic, embodied complexity of brain structure and function, can a map—no matter how precise—ever be the self? Continuity matters. #neuroskyence
jjvornov.substack.com/p/the-myth-o...
jjvornov.substack.com/p/the-myth-o...
What’s needed to maintain personal identity if brain could stored as information and transferred? A meditation on some sci-fi tech.
#neuroskyence
jjvornov.substack.com/p/the-altere...
#neuroskyence
jjvornov.substack.com/p/the-altere...
The Altered Carbon Stack: Mind as Information
Is personal identity maintained if you dematerialize the brain into information and move the information into a blank brain?
jjvornov.substack.com
March 24, 2025 at 7:09 PM
What’s needed to maintain personal identity if brain could stored as information and transferred? A meditation on some sci-fi tech.
#neuroskyence
jjvornov.substack.com/p/the-altere...
#neuroskyence
jjvornov.substack.com/p/the-altere...
I've started a SubStack where I'm exploring my interests at the intersection of neuroscience and philosophy. I'm exploring personal identity and wandered into discussing animal consciousness. Have a look.
open.substack.com/pub/jjvornov...
#neuroscience #neuro #neuroskyence #neurosky
open.substack.com/pub/jjvornov...
#neuroscience #neuro #neuroskyence #neurosky
Is anybody in there? Animal consciousness
Is this frog self aware? Is my dog? Are you?
open.substack.com
March 20, 2025 at 2:55 PM
I've started a SubStack where I'm exploring my interests at the intersection of neuroscience and philosophy. I'm exploring personal identity and wandered into discussing animal consciousness. Have a look.
open.substack.com/pub/jjvornov...
#neuroscience #neuro #neuroskyence #neurosky
open.substack.com/pub/jjvornov...
#neuroscience #neuro #neuroskyence #neurosky