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Tag: neuro

hung up: 24feb26

Published February 24, 2026 by Warren Ellis

Woke up, hung out with the mancub a bit, sat outside with coffee reading the news, ate berries and honey, did a couple of pages on the laptop, walked up to the coffee shop, worked in the notebook over a couple of double espressos, had a chat with the Italian ice cream man who lives at the top of the road. I feel like 90% of myself at this point, and like my 2026 has finally gotten started.

TODAY:

Lily Taylor

STATUS: inbox 116 but an embarrassing number of those are delivery notifications
READING: THE BIG THREE: SOCRATES, PLATO, ARISTOTLE, Neel Burton (UK) (US+)
LISTENING: New Music Show
LAST WATCHED: the new series of MOCK THE WEEK

MISSION CONTROL: I can be contacted via the Cheng Caplan Company or Inkwell Management. Link in masthead to join my free newsletter.

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doorway: 18feb26

Published February 18, 2026 by Warren Ellis

Shoplifter, “Chromo Sapiens” (2019).

Taking off the Fitbit and the Apple Watch, putting on the Maven watch, setting up the third stage of the new notebook system (with a fourth stage to come) – it’s rapid disconnection time. More on that tomorrow because I’ve just been told I’m apparently going out for lunch.

TODAY:

STATUS: first day in a few weeks that I’ve felt even half-human
READING: I’m faintly annoyed with what I’m reading right now – last night I started a book about maximalist novels and it was so whiny (and obsessed with the word “transversal” that I gave up, and the Walsingham book is mired in “we have absolutely no idea what he dd in these years but here’s some random speculation” – so I picked up THE BIG THREE: SOCRATES, PLATO, ARISTOTLE, Neel Burton (UK) (US+)

It can be no coincidence that the hierarchical, anti-democratic Spartans, who privileged military might above all else, prided themselves on the pithiness of their speech. According to Plutarch, when an Attic orator accused the Spartans of being ignorant, Pleistoanax, the Spartan king (r. 458-409 BCE), replied: “What you say is true. Of all the Greeks, we alone have not learnt your evil ways.”


LISTENING: New Music Show

MISSION CONTROL: I can be contacted via the Cheng Caplan Company or Inkwell Management. Link in masthead to join my free newsletter.

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melt: 7feb26

Published February 7, 2026 by Warren Ellis

Ragnar Axelsson

Day… 9? 10? 35? Of this appalling plague. Managed to summon the energy this morning to do the newsletter, and that’s tapped me out.

TODAY:

You know what? That on its own has convinced me to turn the internet off, open a bottle of Fraoch and read a book.

Accessions:

I read a sample of this last year, and yesterday I got a ping to tell me it was on sale. Fits right into winter reading.

THE GANG OF THREE: SOCRATES, PLATO, ARISTOTLE, Neel Burton (UK) (US+)

READING: THE ART OF WAR, Sun Tzu (UK) (US+)
LISTENING:

LAST WATCHED: lots and lots of news

MISSION CONTROL: I can be contacted via the Cheng Caplan Company or Inkwell Management. Link in masthead to join my free newsletter.

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17jan26

Published January 17, 2026 by Warren Ellis

Abruptly stopped feeling like winter at all. It’s like 9 or 10 C out there today.

I’m posting this late because I’ve been trying to assemble flatpack storage boxes to collect CDs into so that I have a little more space in the office to throw shit out so I can get new shelving in here to unpack all the CDs into. Which is a ridiculous vicious circle because I have nowhere to put the boxes I’m filling CDs with. We’ve been living here more than thirty years and we’ve filled the fucking place. And the kid moved out a dozen years ago, so it’s just the two of us and three cats. Very much reaching that “what if I just put the cats in boxes, put them outside and then threw a lit match into the house” point.

TODAY:

TELEMETRY:

  • Pontiac Spirits (ghost mix) by The Besnard Lakes

Accessions:

Molly Crabapple’s new book finally entered pre-orders for Kindle, so I bought one now for delivery in April. It is getting some great blurbs and early shouts.

I recently read da Empoli’s THE HOUR OF THE PREDATOR (notes to come), which was very good, so when I saw WIZARD OF THE KREMLIN on sale I snapped it up.

HERE WHERE WE LIVE IS OUR COUNTRY, Molly Crabapple (UK) (US+)

THE WIZARD OF THE KREMLIN, Giuliano da Empoli (UK) (US+)

Julianna Barwick & Mary Lattimore’s TRAGIC MAGIC just released – my CD copy will be in the post next month, apparently, but I’ve grabbed the mp3s down and they’ll be stuffed onto a SD card for my mp3 player sometime this weekend.

OPERATIONS: picked up a new consult job yesterday – the next thirteen days are rammed and I need to move faster.
STATUS: Slept better, but now it’s time to resume the work of properly disconnecting from the phone in the evenings. Trying to hunt down my old cookbooks – where the fuck did I put the Faviken and Noma books? Everything in the house feels very chaotic and disorganised and I don’t have enough hours in the day. Need to make more blood orange orangeade tonight – herself has discovered she likes it with elderflower tonic.
READING: SPIES: THE EPIC INTELLIGENCE WAR BETWEEN EAST AND WEST, Calder Walton (UK) (US+)
LISTENING: Ultimate Calm, currently
LAST WATCHED: MOONSHINERS: MASTER DISTILLER. Three episodes. Because I unashamedly love that fucking show.

MISSION CONTROL: I can be contacted via the Cheng Caplan Company or Inkwell Management. Link in masthead to join my free newsletter.

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11jan26

Published January 11, 2026 by Warren Ellis

If you didn’t yet get today’s newsletter, it seems the Beehiiv service is on a bit of a slowdown – as I write this, 75 minutes after the scheduler sent it out, it’s still only 68% delivered. if you didn’t get yours, it’s here:

https://orbitaloperations.beehiiv.com/p/2026

I am at the time of writing still waiting for the system to send it to ME.

TODAY:

  • Neuromorphic computers. “A. field that applies principles of neuroscience to computing systems to mimic the brain’s function and structure.” Very good at partial differential equations, it turns out, which are good for fluid dynamics, weather patterning, structural stress mechanics. But here’s the good bit, buried at the bottom:

The researchers believe that neuromorphic computing could help bridge the gap between neuroscience and applied mathematics, offering new insights into how the brain processes information.

“Diseases of the brain could be diseases of computation,” Aimone said. “But we don’t have a solid grasp on how the brain performs computations yet.”

If their hunch is correct, neuromorphic computing could offer clues to better understand and treat neurological conditions like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

  • The dark matter bones of a failed galaxy. That was worth waking up for.

Now, an international team of researchers claims to have used NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to discover an entirely new type of celestial object: dubbed “Cloud-9,” it’s a “starless, gas-rich, dark-matter cloud,” per the European Space Agency. The lack of stars caught the team by surprise, indicating Cloud-9 was a “fossil leftover” — what ScienceAlert memorably termed the “dark-matter bones of a failed galaxy.”

OPERATIONS: Not sure what today is yet. I have a lot of competing thoughts and I’m waiting for them to settle a bit. While also knowing in the back of my head that I have to go shopping and clear the kitchen! But I’m thinking I need to get back into a project I started developing last year, because I know the artist is waiting for the pitch document…
STATUS: the temperature outside is starting a slow climb again, so I can shrug out of the heavy layers in a little while and dress less like a Dark Ages snow-cave hermit.
READING: SPIES: THE EPIC INTELLIGENCE WAR BETWEEN EAST AND WEST, Calder Walton (UK) (US+)
LISTENING: New Music Show

MISSION CONTROL: I can be contacted via the Cheng Caplan Company or Inkwell Management. Link in masthead to join my free newsletter.

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morning computer brain work

Published November 18, 2025 by Warren Ellis

Roger Dean.

While companies like Elon Musk’s Neuralink are hard at work on brain-computer interfaces that require surgery to cut open the skull and insert a complex array of wires into a person’s head, a team of researchers at MIT have been researching a wireless electronic brain implant that they say could provide a non-invasive alternative that makes the technology far easier to access.

They describe the system, called Circulatronics, as more of a treatment platform than a one-off brain chip. Working with researchers from Wellesley College and Harvard University, the MIT team recently released a paper on the new technology, which they describe as an autonomous bioelectronic implant.

Sportswear brand Nike has unveiled its Mind 001 and Mind 002 trainers, designed in collaboration with neuroscientists to improve the connection between mind and body.

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Described as the company’s “first neuroscience-based footwear”, the shoes were created using data collected from brain scans at Nike’s recently established Mind Science Department.

“These are the first shoes designed from the brain down, not the ground up,” Nike chief science officer Matthew Nurse told Dezeen.

morning computer: some useful things first thing in the day.

My free weekly newsletter is at https://orbitaloperations.beehiiv.com/

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telemetry 8nov25

Published November 8, 2025 by Warren Ellis

In a recent paper published in the Journal of Holography Applications in Physics, University of British Columbia Okanagan adjunct professor Mir Faizal and colleagues say they’ve proven that the fundamental nature of reality simply cannot be simulated on any computer.

By using mathematical theorems, they argued that some truths can only be understood through non-algorithmic understanding.

From ARMAGEDDON GOSPELS (2019)

We’re racing towards a future in which devices will be able to read our thoughts. 

You see signs of it everywhere, from brain-computer interfaces to algorithms that detect emotions from facial scans. And though the tech remains imperfect, it’s getting closer all the time: now a team of scientists say they’ve developed a model that can generate descriptions of what people’s brains are seeing by simply analyzing a scan of their brain activity.

They’re calling the technique “mind captioning,” and it may represent an effective way for transcribing what someone’s thinking, with impressively comprehensive and accurate results.

One from 2010 today:

Also, GOD DESTROYER, Osvor, 2011:

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1nov25

Published November 1, 2025 by Warren Ellis

The Bloody Ploughman apples came up small this year, but they’re finally ripening. Bright cold morning.

TODAY:

OPERATIONS: Catching up, as previously noted. Also I need to swap out the earbuds on the mp3 player, because they’re just fucking annoying, and load up another SD card with music – one for recent purchases, one for Davachi/Vantzou/Malone/Radigue, I think. I need to go back into a couple of old notebooks later to find some project notes.
STATUS: Finally fixed sleep – 8hrs 14mins – inbox 94 and about to get shredded. Newsletter is in the pipe for tomorrow. Printer has finally decided it hates the off-brand matte photo paper I’m using and so I’ve had to order different stuff, because printers are all sent from hell
READING: AUTOCRACY INC, Anne Applebaum (UK) (US+)
LISTENING: Ultimate Calm
LAST WATCHED: BUGONIA at the cinema. Notes next week.

MISSION CONTROL: I can be contacted via the Cheng Caplan Company or Inkwell Management. Link in masthead to join my free newsletter.

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morning computer space brains

Published September 29, 2025 by Warren Ellis

Millo and Seth Globepainter.

“The key is to understand how my body works and work with it, not against,” she explains. “I know I’m crap in the mornings, whether I had enough sleep or not. I wake up at 8, but I generally tackle admin, emails, and social media for work, rather than scrolling endlessly. Then, past 1pm, I go into full work mode.”

This self-awareness pays dividends. Sandrine says she can achieve four to five hours of uninterrupted deep work, excepting toilet breaks, by aligning demanding creative tasks with her peak energy periods.

Expert tips on getting into creative flow (and staying there)

Scientists studied the cognitive behavior of astronauts who have spent six months on board the International Space Station — and made some fascinating yet ominous discoveries.

…a series of tests revealed that their cognitive abilities slowed down while in space, “suggesting that processing speed, visual working memory, sustained attention, and risk-taking propensity may be the cognitive domains most susceptible to change in Low Earth Orbit for high-performing, professional astronauts,” the researchers wrote.

So astronauts’ brains malfunction. Great news.

Bonus round: microgravity activates “hidden, ancient sections of DNA called the “dark genome.” We didn’t have enough to worry about. There’s a Dark Genome now.

morning computer: some useful things first thing in the day.

My free weekly newsletter is at https://orbitaloperations.beehiiv.com/

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