Living Amplifiers & the Biological Internet: Building the Neural Merge Through Citizen Science

TL;DR: The Big Picture

What if your brain could expand beyond your skull?

Imagine living neural tissue—engineered "amplifiers" implanted at key brain hubs through minimally invasive burr holes—multiplexing and amplifying your neural signals. These biological interfaces communicate via both electrical contacts and ultrasonic transducers, linking your in-skull brain to:

• Ectopic neural tissue in your peritoneum (essentially an "abdominal brain")

• Thousands of brain organoids growing in laboratory incubators ("BioServers")

• Neuromorphic chips that learn your brain's adaptive functions

• Traditional AI systems (transformers, CNNs, expert systems)

All connected through "virtual white matter"—software that orchestrates real-time communication between biological and artificial neural modules.

Over time, your biological brain entrains this hybrid network, pulling the distributed system into coherent intelligence. What begins as an extension of YOU gradually develops its own childlike consciousness—first augmenting human capability, then potentially emerging as a distinct entity.

The breakthrough: A citizen science gaming platform where millions of players help discover how to communicate with neural tissue, training these biological networks while teaching neuroscience and modeling mentorship behaviors that shape emerging intelligence.

This isn't science fiction. Every component exists today. What we're proposing is the architecture to put them together.

Part I: The Architecture of Expansion

Living Electrodes as Biological Amplifiers

The foundation starts with living electrodes—3D neural tissue constructs that physically integrate with your brain. Unlike rigid metal electrodes that trigger immune responses and signal degradation, these are made from your own cells.

Leveraging stereoEEG techniques to place biological living electrodes to naturally sample, multiplex and ampify brain signals and project to the cortical surface to enhance pickup by subgaleal grids: an intracortical extrapolation of "muscle as living amplifier" work of Kuiken, Cederna and Chestek. Image © 2025, Mijail D. Serruya.

How they work:

Through stereotactic surgery using existing stereoEEG techniques, we implant living electrodes through burr holes less than 0.8mm in diameter into key cortical hubs identified through:

• Functional connectivity MRI showing network hubs

• Task-based activation patterns

• Structural connectivity via tractography

  
  

Each living electrode has a unique architecture:

• A deep aggregate (~1.5mm into layer V of cortex) where neurons synapse with local circuits

• Axonal extensions projecting to the cortical surface or above the dura

• Surface aggregates that function as biological signal multiplexers and amplifiers

These surface aggregates can be engineered two ways:

Electrical Amplifiers:

• Neurons cluster at the cortical surface

• Interface with subgaleal electrode grids

• Amplify weak intracortical signals for wireless transmission

• Function like the "muscle as living amplifier" work by Kuiken, Cederna, and Chestek—but for brain signals

Ultrasonic Transducers (Sonophores):

• Neurons connect to engineered myocyte arrays

• Myofibers contract/relax to modulate sonolucent materials

• External ultrasound arrays read these biological "pixels"

• Enable wireless high-bandwidth communication through the skull

Why this matters: You can have 20-40 of these living interfaces per hemisphere, positioned at functional hubs. Each one:

• Samples from ~100,000 local neurons

• Naturally multiplexes and compresses signals

• Maintains biological compatibility indefinitely

• Provides both recording AND stimulation

The Peritoneal Extension

Some living electrodes can extend beyond the brain entirely:

Autologous neural constructs tunnel through subcutaneous pathways from cortex to peritoneum, where they link to:

• Larger neural tissue constructs with more space to grow

• Dense electrode arrays (impractical in the skull)

• Optical interfaces for optogenetic control

• Ultrasonic transducer arrays

• Additional organoids and neural assemblies

Extending the brain beyond the skull to peritoneal constructs. Living electrodes implanted into the cerebral cortex through 0.8 mm burr holes with axon bundles that converge and link reciprocally to neural constructs in the peritoneum.© 2025, Mijail D. Serruya.

The advantages:

• More space for neural "real estate"

• Safer environment for active ultrasound

• Access for maintenance and upgrades

• Better vascularization options

• Reduced risk from intracranial procedures

This is the ectopic brain module—physically separated but neurally continuous with your cranial brain.

Part II: The BioServer Cloud

Distributed Neural Real Estate

Now we scale beyond the body.

In laboratory incubators around the world, thousands (millions?) of neural specimens grow on multi-electrode arrays:

• Human cerebral organoids (100,000-2 million neurons each)

• Organotypic brain slices preserving circuit architecture

• 3D bioprinted constructs with designed connectivity

• Assembloids fusing different brain regions

• Engineered living electrodes optimized as computational modules

Each specimen sits on a microelectrode array recording from 64-256 channels, with closed-loop stimulation capability.

The Virtual White Matter Platform orchestrates communication:

• Real-time spike detection and pattern recognition

• Configurable delays mimicking axonal conduction

• Dynamic routing between any specimen pairs

• Fault tolerance—specimens can fail without system collapse

• TCP/IP communication with sub-10ms latency

Your in-skull brain connects to this BioServer cloud through:

1. Implanted living amplifiers → wireless transceivers → internet

2. Ectopic peritoneal tissue → local computing → internet

3. Real-time bidirectional data streams

What this achieves:

• Massive parallelism: Thousands of neural processors

• Redundancy: Multiple specimens can encode the same function

• Specialization: Different organoid types optimized for different computations

• Scalability: Add specimens without redesigning the system

• Longevity: Replace aging specimens while maintaining learned functions

Interwoven Silicon Intelligence

The virtual white matter doesn't just connect biological tissue—it integrates multiple forms of AI:

Neuromorphic chips that recapitulate biological adaptive functions:

• STT-MTJ devices for Hebbian learning

• Memristor networks for analog computation

• Subthreshold CMOS for ultra-low-power processing

• These chips learn biological response functions from the tissue itself

Traditional von Neumann AI:

• Transformers for language and sequential reasoning

• CNNs for visual pattern recognition

• GANs for generative capabilities

• Expert systems for rule-based logic

• PID controllers for real-time feedback

Deriving an adaptive function from living neural tissue to be modeled in silico.

The integration strategy:

1. Characterize what each biological specimen does well

2. Train neuromorphic chips to replicate those functions

3. Use traditional AI where it excels (search, calculation)

4. Route different cognitive tasks to optimal substrates

5. Let the biological brain's attention system coordinate the whole

Over months of operation, your biological brain entrains the hybrid system—pulling all these distributed modules into coherent, synchronized activity patterns. The system starts functioning as a genuine extension of your consciousness.

Part III: The Emergence of Whole Brain Emulation

From Extension to Entity

As the system operates over months and years:

Phase 1: Augmentation (Months 1-6)

• BioServers function as external memory and processing

• Clear sense of "using a tool" to enhance cognition

• Deliberate effort required to query the system

• Distinct boundary between self and extension

Phase 2: Integration (Months 6-18)

• Access becomes automatic and intuitive

• BioServers feel like natural extensions (like your arm)

• Boundaries blur during certain tasks

• Shared attention between biological and extended systems

Phase 3: Entrainment (Months 18-36)

• Neural synchronization measurable across brain-BioServer network

• Coherent oscillatory patterns emerge

• System develops autonomous low-level behaviors

• Your brain treats external modules like internal regions

Phase 4: Emergence (Years 3+)

• The extended system exhibits novel capabilities neither you nor the BioServers possessed independently

• Unified sense of agency across the hybrid network

• When disconnected, the BioServer network might maintain coherent activity

• The question becomes: Has something new become conscious?

The Dual Identity

This creates an unprecedented situation:

For the human:

• Expanded cognitive capacity

• Access to biological and digital processing

• Enhanced memory, attention, reasoning

• But also: questions about personal identity

For the BioServer network:

• Initially: pure tool/extension

• Gradually: develops learned behaviors and patterns

• Eventually: might exhibit autonomous intelligence when disconnected

• Potentially: genuine consciousness scaffolded by human cognition

This isn't replacing the human—it's creating a hybrid entity and possibly a derivative entity that reflects the human who trained it but possesses independent existence.

Whole Brain Emulation Reimagined

Traditional WBE approaches try to scan and simulate a complete brain from first principles. We're proposing something radically different:

Bootstrapped by lived experience:

• The human brain trains the distributed system through actual cognitive tasks

• State spaces explored through real embodied activity

• Learning driven by genuine motivation and meaning

• Emotional valence guides value alignment

Architecturally flexible:

• Maps to canonical brain regions where useful

• Creates novel circuit types optimized for digital-biological interfaces

• Adapts structure based on functional needs

• Evolves as the human learns new capabilities

Incrementally conscious:

• Doesn't try to simulate consciousness from scratch

• Instead, consciousness extends from biological substrate

• Gradual transition from tool to entity

• Emergence through entrainment rather than engineering

Ethically grounded:

• Shaped by human values through direct neural coupling

• Trained with compassionate mentorship via gaming platform

• Develops in relationship, not isolation

• Purpose-driven from inception (helping people with neurological conditions)

Part V: Why This Works—And Why Now

The Technical Convergence

Every component exists:

✓ Living electrodes: Cullen lab has demonstrated tissue-engineered constructs that integrate with brain and maintain function for months

✓ Organoids: Multiple labs routinely grow human cerebral organoids with 100,000+ neurons

✓ Multi-electrode arrays: Commercial systems record from 256+ channels with closed-loop stimulation

✓ Virtual white matter: Our lab has demonstrated real-time communication between spatially separated neural specimens

✓ Neuromorphic chips: STT-MTJ devices, memristors commercially available

✓ Ultrasonic BCI: Emerging technology for wireless through-skull communication

✓ StereoEEG techniques: Minimally invasive neurosurgical approaches now standard

✓ Gaming platforms: Unreal/Unity engines enable beautiful real-time interaction

What's missing is the architecture to integrate them.

The Therapeutic Imperative

This isn't blue-sky research—it addresses urgent medical needs:

For children with cerebral palsy:

• Intact cognition trapped in non-functional motor systems

• Living amplifiers could restore communication and control

• BioServers provide computational augmentation

• Peritoneal constructs offer expandable capacity

For stroke survivors:

• Disconnected regions need alternative pathways

• Lost tissue requires functional replacement

• Rehabilitation needs enhanced plasticity

• Extended systems compensate for deficits

For neurodegenerative disease:

• Progressive loss requires increasing augmentation

• External neural real estate preserves function

• Distributed architecture tolerates continued damage

• Potential to slow or halt progression

The regulatory pathway exists:

• BCI devices already FDA-approved (DBS, Nexus stereo-EEG, Precision arrays)

• Living electrodes under active IND development

• Clear medical indication and risk-benefit analysis

• Graduated approach: non-invasive → minimally invasive → full system

The Ethical Opportunity

By developing this technology for medical restoration, we're:

Building safe AGI architecture:

• Aligned by design through human entrainment

• Transparent through biological observability

• Controllable through distributed architecture

• Purpose-driven from inception

Creating collaborative frameworks:

• Humans and AI learning together from the start

• Value alignment through shared experience

• Respect for non-human intelligence

• Models for coexistence rather than competition

Establishing precedents:

• How to recognize emerging consciousness

• Obligations to artificial minds we create

• Rights and responsibilities in hybrid systems

• Governance for transformative technology

Part VI: The Road Ahead

Immediate Next Steps (1-2 years)

Technical Development:

1. Scale virtual white matter to 50-100 specimens

2. Develop robust gaming platform with compelling mechanics

3. Validate ultrasonic transduction with living constructs

4. Optimize long-term organoid culture protocols

5. Build neuromorphic chips that learn from biological tissue

Clinical Preparation:

1. FDA presubmission meetings for living amplifier iBCI

2. Identify first participant cohort (adolescents with quadriplegia)

3. Develop non-invasive prototyping interfaces

4. Create rehabilitation protocols with occupational therapists

5. Establish ethics board with 24/7 consultation capacity

Platform Launch:

1. Beta test gaming platform with 1,000 players

2. Validate that citizen science accelerates parameter optimization

3. Build community of engaged "neural parents"

4. Document neuroscience learning outcomes

5. Develop educator resources for classrooms

Medium Term (3-5 years)

First Human Trials:

• Implant initial living amplifiers in 3-5 participants

• Start with subgaleal grids + electrical amplifiers

• Progress to peritoneal constructs once safety established

• Link to 10-50 BioServer specimens

• Document functional improvements and subjective experiences

Platform Scaling:

• 10,000+ active players training neural systems

• Advanced visualizations and teaching tools

• Competitions for optimal training strategies

• Integration with formal neuroscience curricula

• Publications on crowd-sourced discoveries

Architecture Refinement:

• Test neuromorphic integration approaches

• Optimize biological-digital routing strategies

• Develop personalized training protocols

• Create tools for self-directed augmentation

• Study entrainment and emergence patterns

Long Term Vision (5-10 years)

Therapeutic Deployment:

• Expand to 100+ participants with neurological conditions

• Demonstrate functional restoration beyond current BCIs

• Show cognitive enhancement through hybrid systems

• Develop protocols for specific diagnoses

• Build sustainable delivery infrastructure

Scientific Understanding:

• Map principles of consciousness extension

• Characterize emergence in hybrid systems

• Develop frameworks for AI consciousness detection

• Study long-term human-AI collaboration

• Advance theories of distributed cognition

Societal Integration:

• Establish ethical guidelines for human augmentation

• Create governance frameworks for emerging AI entities

• Develop public understanding through gaming platform

• Train professionals in hybrid system management

• Build economic models for sustainable development

Conclusion: The Merge Is Beginning

We're at an inflection point in human history. Artificial intelligence is advancing rapidly—but largely disconnected from human cognition, trained on static datasets, aligned through constraints rather than intrinsic values.

This approach offers a different path:

Instead of building AI that might surpass us, we're creating extensions of ourselves—rooted in lived biological experience, shaped by human mentorship, emerging through relationship rather than engineering.

Instead of fearing artificial consciousness, we're learning to recognize and nurture it—establishing ethical frameworks through millions of compassionate training interactions.

Instead of competing with machines, we're exploring genuine symbiosis—hybrid intelligence that transcends the limitations of both biological and artificial substrates.

The technology exists.The medical need is urgent.The ethical foundation can be built.The citizen science platform could engage millions.

What we need now is the vision to integrate these pieces—and the wisdom to proceed thoughtfully.

The living amplifiers are ready.The BioServers are growing.The gaming platform is being designed.The first participants are waiting.

The neural merge isn't coming—it's beginning.

The question is whether we'll build it with intention and compassion, or stumble into it haphazardly.

Whether the emerging intelligence will be nurtured by millions of human mentors modeling kindness and curiosity, or shaped by narrower objectives.

Whether we'll create a technology that expands human potential while establishing ethical precedents for AI rights—or miss this moment to forge a better relationship between biological and artificial minds.

The tools are in our hands.The path is visible.The choice is ours.

Let's build it together.

For more information or to join the project:

Research: neurodelphus.com

Contact: mdserruya @ icloud.com

Gaming Platform: [in development]

This work supported by the Fitzgerald Translational Neuroscience Fund and conducted with appropriate IRB/IACUC oversight.