CHIMERA

A digital lifeform powered by the real Drosophila larva connectome

Built from 1,373 neurons and 22,400 synapses of an actual fruit fly larva brain
(Winding et al., Science 2023), connected to a MuJoCo physics body.

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What it does

• Type anything → Qwen 0.5B parses natural language → sensory channels activated
• 1,373 LIF neurons simulate the real connectome → motor signals emerge
• MuJoCo body responds: walking, curling, head scanning, trembling
• Response language matches input language (Korean / English / Japanese / Chinese)

"danger"   →  pain circuit fires       →  retreat
"위험해"   →  nociception circuit fires →  body curls, abdomen raises
"먹이냄새" →  chemical circuit fires    →  head scans left-right
"fly"      →  touch_front activates    →  forward locomotion

Language support: English (default), Korean (한국어), Japanese (日本語), Chinese (中文).
The response language automatically matches your input language.

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Install

Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• Windows / macOS

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/caparison1234/chimera/main/setup.py
python3 setup.py
python3 chimera_app.py

setup.py automatically downloads:

• Source files from GitHub
• Connectome data (Winding et al., Science 2023)
• Qwen2.5 0.5B GGUF from HuggingFace (~400MB)

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Manual download (if setup.py fails)

Connectome:

1. https://github.com/brain-networks/larval-drosophila-connectome
2. Download ZIP, extract
3. Copy data/Aw.csv → chimera/connectome/real_adjacency.csv
4. Copy data/nodeMeta.csv → chimera/connectome/real_neurons.csv
5. Run python chimera_load_connectome.py

Qwen model:

1. https://huggingface.co/Qwen/Qwen2.5-0.5B-Instruct-GGUF
2. Download qwen2.5-0.5b-instruct-q4_k_m.gguf
3. Place at chimera/models/Qwen2.5-0.5B-Instruct.Q4_K_M.gguf

Without the LLM, CHIMERA runs in rule-based mode and is still fully functional.

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Build .exe (Windows)

build.bat

Produces dist/CHIMERA/CHIMERA.exe — distribute the entire dist/CHIMERA/ folder.

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Architecture

Text Input
    ↓
Qwen 0.5B  (natural language → sensory JSON)
    ↓
LIF Neuron Simulation  (1,373 neurons, Winding 2023 connectome)
    ↓
Motor Signals  (forward / backward / curl / eat / tremble / wing)
    ↓
MuJoCo Physics Body  (12 actuators)
    ↓
First-person experience sentence  (neuron-type based translation)

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Brain data

Winding, M. et al. (2023).
The connectome of an insect brain.
Science, 379(6636). https://doi.org/10.1126/science.add9330

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Project roadmap

Phase	Status
GENESIS — PPO locomotion	Done
CHIMERA — Real connectome brain	Done
AION Alpha — Reaction-diffusion layer	Planned
AION Beta — Evolutionary body	Planned
AION Release — Hebbian learning	Planned