If a Meta AI model can read a brain-wide signal, why wouldn't the brain?

Summary

Did you know migratory birds and sea turtles are able to navigate using the Earth's magnetic field? It's called magnetoreception. Basically, being able to navigate was evolutionarily advantageous, so life evolved ways to feel the Earth's magnetic field. A LOT of ways. Like a shocking amount of ways. Here's a few examples: Magnetotactic bacteria – magnetite chains as built-in compass needles. Land plants – growth, germination, tropisms modulated by weak magnetic fields. Honey bee – abdomen magnetite and magnetic compass in foragers. American cockroach – behavior disrupted by specific RF fields, consistent with a magnetic sense. Fruit fly – cryptochrome-dependent magnetic compass under blue light. Monarch butterfly – time-compensated magnetic compass for migration. Loggerhead sea turtle – hatchlings orient in coil-manipulated magnetic fields. Common carp – spontaneous north–south body alignment in ponds. Sharks and rays – ampullae of Lorenzini detect electric and magnetic fields for navigation and prey detection. Tadpoles – magnetically driven orientation tied to visual system. Box turtle – homing disrupted when local geomagnetic field is altered. Domestic chicken – chicks trained to find social reward using a magnetic compass. Homing pigeon – altered magnetic fields at the head deflect homing bearings. Blind mole-rat – subterranean mammal with light-independent magnetic compass and map. Cattle and deer – grazing/herd bodies align roughly north–south at global scale. Domestic dogs – defecation posture tracks geomagnetic north–south under quiet field conditions. Humans – alpha-band EEG shows robust, orientation-specific responses to Earth-strength field rotations. It would seem evolution adores detecting magnetic fields. And it makes sense! A literal "sense of direction" is quite useful in staying alive - nearly all life benefits from it, including us. We don't totally understand how our magnetoreception works yet, but we know that it does. In 2019, some Caltech resear...