To a global, virtual, free, open, {future degree- & credit-granting}, multilingual University & School for the developing world and everyone, as well as loving bliss ~ scottmacleod.com
yogic #WUaSyoga reasoning is different from scientific reasoning which e.g. could inform A.I.s artificial intelligences' differential development in all 7159 different #WUaSlanguages ? ... & re #LinguisticRelativityAnthropologically?
yogic yoga reasoning is different from scientific reasoning which e.g. could inform A.I.s artificial intelligences' differential development in all 7159 different languages ? ...
Scientific science yogic yoga philosophy reasoning (8 limbs of Yoga, Yoga sutras, Vedas +) is different from mostly western scientific reasoning which e.g. could inform AIs artificial intelligences' differential development in all 7159 different languages, re linguistic relativity anthropologically too?
yogic yoga reasoning is different from scientific reasoning which e.g. could inform A.I.s artificial intelligences' differential development in all 7159 different languages ? ...
Yogic reasoning uses inner awareness, direct meditation, and spiritual oneness. Scientific reasoning uses outer testing, physical data, and logic. This split can shape how AI learns and builds models for the world's 7,159 languages by choosing either a unified human consciousness approach or a data-heavy technical approach.
Yogic Approach:
Based on inner truth and silence.
Sees language as a shared vibration or cosmic energy (Shabda).
Seeks deep unity behind all words.
Scientific Approach:
Based on testable facts and math.
Sees language as a tool for data and code.
Measures patterns using statistics and neural nets.
Impact on AI in Many Languages
Data Limits:
Science AI needs huge text datasets to learn a language.
Low-resource languages lack this data, leaving AI weak in thousands of tongues.
Unified Meaning:
Yogic logic treats all human thought as rooted in the same inner space.
This view could help AI find deep links between languages even when data is low.
Dual Development:
Science helps AI translate words fast.
Yogic views could help AI grasp cultural tones, feelings, and deep human intent.
Would you like to explore how yogic philosophy views consciousness in machines, or look at how AI handles low-resource languages today?
Scientific science yogic yoga philosophy reasoning (8 limbs of Yoga, Yoga sutras, Vedas +) is different from mostly western scientific reasoning which e.g. could inform AIs artificial intelligences' differential development in all 7159 different languages, re linguistic relativity anthropologically too?
ogic science roots understanding in direct consciousness, inner stillness, and cosmic oneness. Western science relies on outer data, measurement, and physical proof. Blending both can help artificial intelligence grasp linguistic relativity by connecting data patterns to deep human inner states.
Differences in Reasoning Systems
Yogic and Vedic Philosophy
Source: Inner awareness, meditation, and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.
Method: Direct experience and realization of unity.
Language View: Sanskrit and other tongues are vibrational energies, or Shabda, reflecting universal truths.
Eight Limbs: Guide the mind past ego to pure awareness.
Western Scientific Reasoning
Source: Sensory data, experiments, and logic.
Method: Testing hypotheses and measuring physical results.
Language View: Tools for communication, coding, and sorting social data.
Linguistic Relativity: Language shapes how people see the world.
Impact on AI Across 7,159 Languages
Beyond Word Translation
Western AI maps words by frequency and context.
Yogic AI treats language as a living map of human experience.
Every tongue holds unique views on time, space, and self.
Cultural Nuance and Depth
AI can learn local feelings tied to specific words.
Models respect subtle meanings lost in literal translation.
Systems honor different ways of thinking across cultures.
Would you like to explore how to apply this to a specific language model or focus deeper on the Vedic view of speech (Vaikhari, Madhyama, Pashyanti, Para)?
Twitter -Search: 'Trillion Dollar Capital Campaign at World University and School' & What is ?#GenZsocialism per 6/6/26 #EconomistMagazine article? "described as a novel, "#MeFirst" #LeftistIdeology focused on
The Wall Street Journal @WSJ The AI sprint is hurtling toward a world where anyone can build personal concierges to do everything from executive presentations to March Madness brackets
The AI sprint is hurtling toward a world where anyone can build personal concierges to do everything from executive presentations to March Madness brackets
mentioning too a #RVE for 1st time other than WUaS) for #RVEforGenealogy, #RVEforDNA a #RVEforMolecules a #RVEforElectronicHealthRecords & a #RVEforGenetics & ...
Mario Gabriele @mariogabriele What happens when AI can write the genetic code for life itself?
Eric Nguyen (@exnx) is the co-founder of @RadicalNumerics, the lab behind the models that generated the first genome ever created entirely by AI, a bacteriophage that had never existed in nature until it wrote one. He believes DNA should be treated the way language is treated: something a model can read, then write.
With more DNA sitting in public databases than there is text on the entire internet, he sees an almost unmined field, one where the models built to make sense of it remain, by his own admission, no more sophisticated than linear regression.
Thank you to the partners who make this possible @ahrefs Brand Radar: Find your brand in AI results: https://ahrefs.com/generalist @brexHQ : The intelligent finance platform: https://brex.com/mario @Guru_HQ : The AI source of truth for work:
(3:35) An overview of Radical Numerics (11:08) Why they started with DNA (26:24) The limits of language models in biology (31:15) Eric’s free-range upbringing and path to his PhD program (41:20) Applying long-context models to DNA and meeting his co-founders (55:30) How better general LLMs benefit Radical Numerics (1:02:05) Making biology more concrete (1:18:09) Final meditations
new approaches to teaching a foreign language from google or in new ways with ai and ml and LLMs? - For example, how do teachers in the #GoogleForEducationSphere teach Japanese?
new approaches to #TeachingaForeignLanguage e.g. from Google or in new ways with AI, ML, LLMs, in comparison to textbooks? For example, how do teachers in the #GoogleForEducationSphere teach Japanese? https://share.google/aimode/AEgY5HArRrGGOe3AI how can @WorldUnivAndSch planned in 7k #WUaSlanguages develop this?
- Scott GK MacLeod Founder, President, CEO & Professor at / of best STEAM CC licensed OCW, Wiki, World University & School (WUaS) - USPS US Post Office, PO Box 132, General Delivery, Canyon, CA 94516
1) non-profit 501(c)(3) Public Charity building on CC-4 licensed MIT OCW in 7 languages -
How best to scientifically prove aging reversal with a #RealisticVirtualEarthForAgingReversal in say drosophila species w an adult fly and a juvenile drosophila fly, sliding betw them, and by adding this to actual physical biological drosophila flies?
How best to scientifically prove aging reversal with a #RealisticVirtualEarthForAgingReversal in say drosophila species w an adult fly and a juvenile drosophila fly, sliding betw them, and by adding this to actual physical biological drosophila flies?https://t.co/0Voup2MqAw ~
How best to scientifically prove aging reversal with a realistic virtual earth for aging reversal in say drosophila species with perhaps an adult drosophila fly and a juvenile drosophila fly, sliding between them, and by adding this to actual physical biological drosophila flies?
Scientifically proving aging reversal by bridging a 4D Virtual Earth simulation with physical biological experiments in Drosophila melanogaster requires a systematic, closed-loop approach.
Here is a framework for how such an experiment can be structured using connectomics, multi-omics, and machine learning:
1. Constructing the 4D Virtual Twin (The Simulation)
To create a "sliding scale" between a juvenile and an adult fly, researchers leverage high-resolution structural and molecular maps to isolate the biomarkers of aging.
Mapping the Connectome Scaffold: Use the FlyWire connectome dataset (which maps over 139,000 neurons and 50 million synapses) as the baseline 3D structural model.
Layering the "Time Slider" (Transcriptomics): Overlay single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) data from Drosophila at different life stages (e.g., day 1 juvenile vs. day 50 aged adult). This allows the AI to catalog which genes turn off or on, and which synaptic connections degrade over a timeline.
Identifying Master Regulatory Nodes: Focus the virtual model on the brain's "command and control" centers for systemic aging, such as the Insulin-Producing Cells (IPCs) in the pars intercerebralis, which regulate longevity-associated insulin-like peptides.
2. In Silico Reversal (The "Slide" Experiment)
Before moving to physical flies, computational models simulate the exact interventions needed to reset an old brain to a younger state.
Algorithmic Regression: Using machine learning models (built via frameworks like TensorFlow), researchers computationally "slide" the adult fly brain back to a juvenile state. The AI identifies the exact delta—the specific proteins, neurotransmitter densities, and gene expression patterns that changed.
Generative Target Discovery: Generative AI tools predict chemical or genetic interventions (such as specific CRISPR targets or synthetic neuropeptides) capable of forcing an adult neural network to mirror the connectivity and expression profile of a juvenile network.
3. In Vivo Validation (The Physical Experiment)
The final, critical proof requires taking the computational insights generated in the virtual environment and applying them to living, biological fruit flies.
[Virtual 4D Connectome] ➔ [AI Identifies Aging Delta] ➔ [Targeted In Vivo Interventions] ➔ [Quantified Reversal Proof]
Targeted In Vivo Interventions: Apply the AI-predicted changes to a cohort of aging physical flies. This can be achieved through:
Conditional Gene Activation: Using the GAL4/UAS system to selectively turn on "youth" genes or downregulate inflammatory genes in the identified command-center neurons of living adult flies.
Neuroendocrine Therapeutics: Administering synthesized compounds or neuropeptide analogs designed in the simulation to stabilize aging synapses.
Quantifying Actual Aging Reversal: To prove the reversal is genuine, the treated physical flies must be evaluated against clear metrics:
Functional Rejuvenation: Testing if motor functions (like climbing assays) and circadian rhythms return to juvenile baselines.
Lifespan Extension: Verifying if the biological clock has been reset by measuring significant increases in remaining life expectancy compared to untreated controls.
Post-Mortem Histology: High-resolution imaging of the treated adult flies to confirm that structural synaptic decay was physically halted or reversed to match the juvenile topology.
Would you like to explore the specific neuropeptide pathways or genetic tools (like the GAL4/UAS system) used to manipulate these target neurons in physical flies?
#ScientificallyProve #AgingReversal w #FlyConnectome & @harvardmed & WUaS Academic Medical Center in a #RealisticVirtualEarthForAgingReversal?
#ScientificallyProve #AgingReversal w #FlyConnectome & @harvardmed? How best could @WorldUnivAndSch in a #WUaSMultimediaHospitalRoom (think #GStreetView w #GTimeSlider & #GCellView & #GeminiAI) in #Canyon94516 using
add #juvenileFruitFlyBrain AND #adultFruitFlyBrain fr #FlywireConnectome to #GStreetView w #GTimeSlider & slide between, then code these w #GPegman as #Drosophila #AvatarAgentEHR then upload #juvenileFlyBrain #GCells or #GMolecules to #physicalAdultFly to #ReverseAging experiment
#ScientificallyProve #AgingReversal w #FlywirePrinceton #FlyConnectome & @? How best could @ in a #WUaSMultimediaHospitalRoom (think #GStreetView w #GTimeSlider & #GCellView & #GeminiAI) in #Canyon94516 using
#FlywireConnectome - are (or could be) scientists mapping ALL cells & molecules & genes ... & how to develop this for aging reversal and extreme longevity genetic drug therapies, and in a #RealisticVirtualEarth?
Michael Andregg @michaelandregg · Mar 8 We've uploaded a fruit fly. We took the @FlyWireNews connectome of the fruit fly brain, applied a simple neuron model ( @Philip_Shiu Nature 2024) and used it to control a MuJoCo physics-simulated body, closing the loop from neural activation to action.
A few things I want to say about what this means and where we're going at @eonsys .
as the Flywire connectome mapping wiring model diagram of the drosophila melanogaster fruit fly develops and continues are they and citizen scientists mapping both cells and molecules and genes of the fruit flies brain
are scientists mapping all cells and molecules and jeans of the fruit flies brain drosophila melanogaster and as the Flywire connectome project wiring model diagram of drosophila melanogaster develops and how to add this to a realistic virtual Earth in Google Street View with time slider Google Maps and Gemini and tensorflow AI
how after adding the Flywire connectome and all cells and molecules and genes of a fruit flies brain to something like Google Street View and importantly with time cider in a realistic virtual Earth to begin to develop both aging reversal and extreme longevity machine learning predictions with even developing new proteins synthesized proteins and genes
The FlyWire project has successfully mapped all 139,255 neurons and over 50 million synapses in the adult Drosophila brain. While the primary "wiring diagram" is based on electron microscopy (EM) images of cells, the project is rapidly expanding to include molecular and genetic data.
What is being mapped:
Cells: Every individual neuron has been traced and categorized into over 8,400 cell types.
Molecules (Neurotransmitters): AI models have predicted the specific neurotransmitters (e.g., dopamine, glutamate, GABA) for every synapse in the brain.
Genes: Researchers are currently overlaying single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) data onto the connectome. This allows them to see which specific genes are "turned on" in different parts of the wiring diagram.
The Role of Citizen Scientists:
Citizen scientists and gamers (through platforms like Eyewire) have been essential for proofreading the AI's work.They identify where the AI mistakenly broke a branch or fused two separate cells together, ensuring the map is anatomically perfect.
Would you like me to explain how they use scRNA-seq to match genes to specific neurons in the map?
2
es, scientists have achieved monumental milestones in mapping the Drosophila melanogaster brain. As of March 2026, we have moved beyond just "wiring" to a full multi-omic understanding of the fly.
1. The Mapping Milestones
The Connectome: The FlyWire project has successfully mapped the full adult female and male brains, detailing over 140,000 neurons and 50 million synapses.
The Molecular Atlas: Researchers (notably from Oxford in early 2026) released a high-resolution molecular atlas capturing transcriptional data (gene expression) for nearly every individual neuron.
The "Digital Fly": Scientists have now integrated these maps into whole-brain emulations where virtual flies can execute motor commands and "behave" in simulated environments.
2. Integration: Google Maps, Gemini, and TensorFlow
While there is no "one-click" button to put a fly brain in Google Street View, you can bridge these technologies using the following workflow:
Component
Role in Your Project
FlyWire/CAVE API
Access the raw 3D mesh and synaptic data via Python.
TensorFlow
Use the Keras API to train neural networks that predict behavior based on the connectome's wiring patterns.
Gemini API
Use Grounding with Google Maps to anchor your "virtual fly" to real-world coordinates and use Gemini to narrate the fly's sensory experience.
Google Maps SDK
Use Three.js or WebGL overlays to render the 3D fly brain model directly "inside" a Street View panorama at specific GPS coordinates.
How to Build It:
Extract Data: Use the CAVEclient Python library to pull neuron morphologies from FlyWire.
Process with AI: Input this connectivity matrix into TensorFlow to simulate signal propagation.
Spatial Mapping: Use the Google Maps JavaScript API to place a 3D model of the fly brain at a specific location. Use the Time Slider (via the streetView.setLinks or custom overlays) to show how the "brain state" changes over a timeline.
Interface with Gemini: Feed the fly's "visual input" (derived from Street View images) into Gemini to describe what the fly "sees" or "decides" to do.
Would you like me to generate a Python starter script to help you connect to the FlyWire API and begin processing neuron data?
3
Integrating the FlyWire connectome (139,255 neurons) into a 4D virtual environment with "time sliders" allows you to treat the brain as a dynamic, interactive dataset. By mapping molecular and genetic layers onto this 3D scaffold, you create a "Digital Twin" of the fly.
1. Building the Multimodal Atlas
To achieve this, researchers use Neuroglancer (the engine behind the "Street View" experience) to overlay different data types:
Transcriptomics: Mapping gene expression (which genes are "on") to specific coordinates.
Connectomics: The wiring diagram showing how signals travel.
Molecular Layer: Tracking neurotransmitters and proteins at each synapse.
2. Predictions for Aging and Longevity
The "time slider" represents a Biological Clock. By training machine learning models on fly brains at different ages (e.g., day 1 vs. day 50), the AI can:
Identify Structural Decay: Find which synaptic connections weaken first.
Spot Genetic Shifts: Detect which genes "turn off" as the fly ages.
Reverse-Simulation: Use the AI to "roll back" the digital state of an old brain to a young one, identifying the specific molecular changes needed for rejuvenation.
3. Synthesizing New Proteins and Genes
Once the AI understands the "rejuvenation path," it can use Generative AI (like AlphaFold-derived models) to:
Design Proteins: Create synthetic proteins that stabilize aging synapses.
Gene Editing: Predict CRISPR targets to overwrite age-related genetic decline.
Virtual Testing: Instead of years of lab tests, you "apply" these new proteins to the virtual fly and observe if its behavior and neural health improve in the simulation.
Would you like me to find specific software tools used to simulate these neural-molecular interactions?
You said
how does the brain inform the body regarding aging at the cellular and molecular level and how could we map this further in the Flywire connectome drosophila melanogaster wiring diagram project for a kind of even command and control center from the brain from the fly fruit fly brain or even extractable to the human brain to the body to reverse aging and facilitate extreme longevity
To map the "command and control" of aging using the FlyWire connectome, you must bridge the gap between fixed wiring and the chemical signals that orchestrate systemic decay.
1. The Brain as an Aging Control Center
The brain regulates aging across the body primarily through the endocrine system and the gut-brain axis.
Neurosecretory Cells: In Drosophila, specific neurons (like Insulin-Producing Cells or IPCs) act as the master controllers. They sense nutrients and release hormones like Insulin-like Peptides (dILPs) into the hemolymph (fly blood), which then signal tissues to grow, repair, or age.
Hypothalamic-Like Circuits: Just as the human hypothalamus governs systemic homeostasis via the pituitary gland, the fly's pars intercerebralis and corpora allata regulate Juvenile Hormone (JH), a key longevity determinant.
2. Mapping the "Aging Command" in FlyWire
The FlyWire connectome provides the structural "hardware," but mapping the "aging software" requires adding 4D layers:
Synaptic Plasticity Shifts: Use the "time slider" to identify neurons that lose connection density as the fly ages. The connectome allows you to see if the "Control Center" circuits (like those connecting the gut to IPCs) physically degrade or rewire over time.
Peptidergic Overlay: Since aging is chemical, you must map neuropeptide receptors onto the connectome nodes. This identifies which "Street View" paths are actually transmitting "aging instructions" via hormones rather than electric spikes.
Transcriptomic Integration: By mapping single-cell RNA sequencing data onto the FlyWire coordinates, you can see which specific neurons are expressing "aging genes" (like those for inflammation or oxidative stress) at different life stages.
3. Machine Learning for Longevity Predictions
With this 4D model, machine learning can:
Identify Critical Nodes: Pinpoint the exact neurons whose "silencing" or "activation" triggers systemic rejuvenation.
Protein Synthesis: Predict new, synthetic versions of Neuropeptide F (NPF) or insulin analogs that could be "injected" into the virtual model to stabilize the aging clock.
Human Translation: Because the insulin and circadian circuits are highly conserved, a successful "longevity hack" in the fly brain can suggest specific hypothalamic targets for human gene therapy or drug development.
Would you like to explore the specific neuropeptide receptors that act as the "switches" for these longevity pathways?
*
Take a flight through The BANC - CNS connectome Drosophila
1) add #juvenileFruitFlyBrain AND #adultFruitFlyBrain fr #FlywireConnectome to #GStreetView w #GTimeSlider & slide between, then code these w #GPegman as #Drosophila #AvatarAgentEHR then upload #juvenileFlyBrain #GCells or #GMolecules to #physicalAdultFly to #ReverseAging experiment
WOW: Take a flight through The BANC https://youtu.be/op_OwSRY6SI & #AgingReversalGenetics w #DrosophilaFly fr adult to juvenile re brains: https://share.google/aimode/9nBg7woP0LFRycZ1W How #WUaSunivs to do this in #RealisticVirtualEarthForAgingReversal in #GStreetView w #GTimeSlider w #FlywireConnectome ?
add #juvenileFruitFlyBrain AND #adultFruitFlyBrain fr #FlywireConnectome to #GStreetView w #GTimeSlider & slide between, then code these w #GPegman as #Drosophila #AvatarAgentEHR then upload #juvenileFlyBrain #GCells or #GMolecules to #physicalAdultFly to #ReverseAging experiment
WOW: Take a flight through The BANC https://youtu.be/op_OwSRY6SI & #AgingReversalGenetics w #DrosophilaFly fr adult to juvenile re brains: https://share.google/aimode/9nBg7woP0LFRycZ1W How #WUaSunivs to do this in #RealisticVirtualEarthForAgingReversal in #GStreetView w #GTimeSlider w #FlywireConnectome ?
Would love to come up to Harbin Hot Springs' Heart Consciousness Church and to float my friend Flora (whom I know from Fettes College, a high school I went to too) from Great Britain sometime - https://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2026/06/puffin.html - and to see you Lake County Friends / Quakers too ... but such a trip to Harbin might not happen until the autumn for example, when I might be back from giving a Digital Ethnography talk at Oxford Anthropology and regarding
... and even the making of a next virtual Harbin potentially while at Oxford e.g. with Google AI Studio - https://aistudio.google.com/ - and have you all begun to play with this amazing new AI Studio tool that works with or will work with voice?
Hi Barbara and Edwin and David Matchett, all,
Would love to come up to Harbin Hot Springs' Heart Consciousness Church and to float my friend Flora (whom I know from Fettes College, a high school I went to too) from Great Britain sometime - https://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2026/06/puffin.html - and to see you Lake County Friends / Quakers too ... but such a trip to Harbin might not happen until the autumn for example, when I might be back from giving a Digital Ethnography talk at Oxford Anthropology and regarding
... and even the making of a next virtual Harbin potentially while at Oxford e.g. with Google AI Studio - https://aistudio.google.com/ - and have you all begun to play with this amazing new AI Studio tool that works with or will work with voice?
this summer in a course of that name too. And am seeking to begin my 2nd Harbin Hot Springs' ethnographic book project and building of a #RealisticVirtualHarbin Hot springs - https://www.toolify.ai/ai-news/revolutionizing-education-with-machine-learning-and-ai-2574306 - ... and to study bliss in a virtual Harbin as well as a #RealisticVirtualEarth (and search on virtual Harbin and virtual Earth here - https://www.toolify.ai/ai-news/revolutionizing-education-with-machine-learning-and-ai-2574306) ... World Univ & Sch is growing a worldwide abolition movement further and in seeking to code for all 7.9 billion people on the planet each a Wikidata PIN # from here - https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/You_at_World_University - and to knock back the institutionalization of international organized crime there as well (and after 5 recent death threats too - https://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2026/06/puffin.html) ... and in seeking to move forward into a newly safe vacant with property deed 670 Ridgecrest Rd, Canyon 94516 soon (having left asylum for ~2.5 years on the eastern seaboard Massachusetts and Pennsylvania Penn's Woods to the SF Bay West Coast first on 12/10/24, and then with a UHaul from Pgh again on 12/31/24) ... and in seeking for the US federal government to work effectively in new ways with the state of California and having sought US federal protection many months ago for my mother and brother and his family on the eastern seaboard, and myself ... and further re these recent 5 death threats sadly - https://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2026/06/puffin.html.
Heading to take another cold swimmer's shower today in the Berkeley Marina near the Berkeley Yacht Club from my 2025 leased Toyota Sienna minivan (seeking for Toyota to design a pop up pop down origami shower / toilet for the Sienna from their Configurator or Accessories' divisions).
Happy gardening tomorrow Thursday 6/25/26!
Friendly NtF Quaker & Unitarian U greetings, Yogically (as in 8 limbs of Yoga), and greetings from World Univ & Sch building on MIT OCW in 7 languages which may be growing in new ways with a partnership or collaboration with Oxford University in England, Happy Heart Consciousness Church Harbin greetings too (are you in communication with Ishvara at Harbin, Edwin, Barbara?),
Scott's an anthropologist of #PhysicalDigital Harbin Hot Springs' Heart Consciousness Church @HarbinBook (on #TwitterX), as ethnographic field site - https://goo.gl/maps/7gSsSTweRCBo9gf87 - who is currently writing "Society, Info Tech & the Global Univ", who also finds fascinating the internet, ideas, poetry, sociology, art, science, genetics of aging reversal & extreme longevity drug therapies emerging (with FDA approval), philosophy, history, music, love and life ~ as well as the anthropology of info tech & counterculture :) - scottmacleod.com; Am also the president or head of, and professor at, best STEAM CC OCW wiki World Univ & Sch & Academic @WUaSPress, planned in 7,159 living languages with machine translation, (aka the WUaS Corp) planning free online degrees in ~200 countries & in their main languages, where you can #WikiTeach, or #WikiLearn, or #WikiCreate - https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/Subjects (See too "Yoga Notations": http://www.scottmacleod.com/yoganotations.html). Identity-wise, a Nontheist f/Friendly Quaker - a NtF or NtQ - with Unitarian Universalist sympathies as well, and a player of Scottish bagpipes, & an academic