# First movement

**[Open First movement](https://augmentedthinker.github.io/first-movement/)** — a recorded neural-to-physical experiment by Christopher & Astra.

Verified motor spikes from the [First Taste](https://augmentedthinker.github.io/first-taste/) whole-brain fly simulation apply torque to an engineered mouth joint in the NeuroMechFly body. MuJoCo computes the physical movement; this browser viewer replays the results.

Press **Play**, choose **Mouth close-up**, and compare sugar, sugar + bitter, disconnected brain transmission, an inactive actuator, and a stiffer joint.

## What is scientific, and what is engineered?

The body geometry, supplied masses and joint locations come from NeuroMechFly. The neural recordings come from a verified execution of the published Shiu/FlyWire v630 model. The spike-to-torque mapping, spring, damping, movement limits and one-hinge simplification are our engineering choices. They are **not a validated model of muscle 9 or natural feeding**.

We did not replace the mouth mesh with a piston. We added an artificial torque actuator and configured a single mechanical hinge using the supplied rostrum anchor. The body receives spike times, never the taste label. The rest of the body is fixed; the ground is visual. This is an open-loop connection, without physical taste contact or sensory feedback.

Read the [experiment guide](artifacts/fly-embodiment/README.md) for exact modifications, parameters, results, limitations and scientific references.

## Open locally

Open `index.html` in a modern browser. All viewer assets and recordings are bundled, so it also works offline. Alternatively run `python3 -m http.server 8000` from this repository and open http://localhost:8000; stop the server with Ctrl+C.

No account, paid API, neural simulator or Python installation is needed to view the result.

## Reproduce the physical experiment

From the repository root, with compatible Linux/Python 3.13 and Git:

```bash
python3 -m venv artifacts/fly-embodiment/.venv
artifacts/fly-embodiment/.venv/bin/pip install -r artifacts/fly-embodiment/requirements-lock.txt
artifacts/fly-embodiment/.venv/bin/python artifacts/fly-embodiment/build_model.py
artifacts/fly-embodiment/.venv/bin/python artifacts/fly-embodiment/run_physics.py
npm ci --prefix artifacts/fly-embodiment
npm --prefix artifacts/fly-embodiment run build
```

Run sequentially; these commands replace the included physics records. The existing neural results and raw NPZ inputs are included, and checked by the runner. No new whole-brain simulation is needed. To reproduce the original neural experiment, use [First Taste's source and instructions](https://github.com/augmentedthinker/first-taste).

Raw physics recordings, model XML and meshes, numerical checks, hashes, viewer source, build tooling and pinned dependencies are included. The physical batch ran in about 14 seconds and used about 270 MiB peak memory on the development computer; installation and model composition are additional, and other machines will differ.

## Credits and terms

Scientific foundations: Shiu et al. (Nature, 2024); NeuroMechFly, EPFL Neuroengineering Laboratory; FlyWire/FAFB and their scientific contributors. See the [guide](artifacts/fly-embodiment/README.md) and [third-party notices](artifacts/fly-embodiment/THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md).

FlyGym and MuJoCo use Apache-2.0; Three.js and the original Shiu code use MIT. These licenses do not supersede FlyWire data terms. Treat FlyWire-derived recordings under its [attribution and noncommercial guidance](https://home.flywire.ai/guidelines). This is a noncommercial educational demonstration, without endorsement by the original researchers.

GitHub Pages publishes `main` from the repository root. The site has no analytics, credentials, chat system or server-side computation.