Flyling
Flyling (Sinekcim in Turkish) is a simulation game in which a fruit fly runs on a fixed wiring map (connectome), learns smells (mushroom body) and finds its way with an inner compass (central complex). The fly is yours: it learns and lives on through generations. The scientific scope and measurements are in the project documents; the model is not a copy of a biological fly.
Brain data: in the version published with a real brain map, the wiring comes from the Male CNS (MaleCNS v1.0) connectome: a collaboration of FlyEM (HHMI Janelia), the Department of Zoology at the University of Cambridge, the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Google Research (male-cns.janelia.org). The data is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Changes: only traced neurons and connections with at least 10 synapses were kept, the sign of each connection was taken from the neurotransmitter prediction, weights were normalised by the input of the target neuron, sensory and motor pools were chosen from cell types, and each odour class was wired to the receptors of glomeruli chosen from the literature. This simplified model and its results do not belong to the data owners and are not endorsed by them.
Privacy
- No server: the simulation runs entirely in your browser. Your fly, its lineage and what it learned are kept only in this browser's local storage (IndexedDB) and are not sent to any server (except for the experiment of the week and error reports below).
- Experiment of the week: if you take part, your result (score, food found, time survived, your prediction) and an irreversible digest of your fly's id are sent to the shared board. The board shows only a short label derived from the digest (e.g. "Fly 3fa9"); entries are deleted after 8 weeks.
- Error reports and "Report a problem": if the game hits an error or the simulation stops, the error message, a shortened technical detail, the file name and a small technical context (language, mode, frame rate, fly generation, browser name and major version) are sent anonymously. Text you write in the "Report a problem" box in Settings goes the same way. Your fly's id, its save, your IP address or cookies are not sent or kept; reports are kept for at most 90 days.
- Personal information: there is no name, e-mail, account or cookie; no visit counter or analytics tool is used.
- Downloads: when the page opens it downloads the game files and Pyodide, which runs Python in the browser. The hosting service (Cloudflare), like on any website, may keep request logs under its own rules.
- Deleting and moving: if you clear the browser's site data, your fly is deleted too. Lab → Settings → "Download your fly as a file" saves your fly to a file that you can open on another device with "Load a fly from a file". The file stays on your computer and is not uploaded anywhere. If you share a file, the recipient can play a copy of your fly.
Contact
For questions, bug reports or requests about your data: iletisim@sinekcim.com