The Fly’s Brain and Brain Hacking

　The structure of a fly’s brain has been analyzed, and flies whose brains have been digitally recreated are already being used in data-driven experiments. These include the usual DOOM gameplay, as well as turning them into Bitcoin trading machines through reflexes driven by the reward system.

　I wonder whether this will also reveal what a world of purely instinctive reflexes, like that of an insect, is actually like. The fly turned into a Bitcoin trading machine keeps trading in response to market fluctuations. Apparently it doesn’t lose as often as you might expect. What would it feel like to have a view of the world this simple? Maybe insects really don’t have emotions after all.

　Will human brains become manipulable in the near future too? Or are they so much more complex that it will take incomparably longer than with flies? Still, I imagine the data on animals with larger brains than flies will continue to be unraveled step by step.

　And so—

　That leads to the question of whether we might eventually be able to manipulate the human brain precisely, like in the manga Homunculus. If you made a hole in a certain part of the brain, could someone dream happy dreams forever? Or could depression be cured through electrical stimulation?

　Drugs, after all—whether poison or medicine—are ultimately just ways of hacking the brain and body. If possible, it would be quicker to manipulate the brain directly. We can already control the reward system in a fly’s brain, so maybe one day even a human could be sent into an eternal dream just by giving the brain a tiny push.

　For example, a euthanasia device is basically a machine that stops brain function relatively peacefully. But whether a person actually remains peaceful right up to the moment of death is another matter. The instant the brain can no longer receive oxygen may be agonizing no matter what, and whether a euthanasia device was truly “merciful” to the very end is something only the dead could know.

　If artificially stopping brain function is acceptable, then perhaps one day we’ll live in a world where problems are solved by directly stimulating the brain and flooding it with dopamine. At first, maybe it would only catch on in underground circles or among the bourgeoisie.

　Part of me wants to see what happens to people who break after having their dopamine hacked, and honestly, I wouldn’t even mind becoming a test subject myself—thinking, why not give it a try before suicide? It might even be healthier than secretly indulging in drug analogs, those forcibly legalized substitutes.

　The electric fly that devotes its whole life to Bitcoin trading does not dream. It goes on trading forever through mechanical reflex, receiving pleasure from its reward system in proportion to its actions. Perhaps that, too, is one form of happiness.