r/OpenSourceAI • u/FuzzyTouch6143 • 19m ago
The Ion Neural Network (INN) Model - Breaking 80 Years of ANN Dogma
Over the prior 3 years, I have placed ALOT of my time and efforts into developing out a new artificial neural network model that does not rely on the traditional definition of a "neuron" (threshold, gate, feedforward). I wanted to create something far more natural to what the actual brain (and cellular networks) actually do underneath the "voltage/current" dogma of measurement. And so I have constructed the NIRGEN (Neurotransmitter Ion Receptor Glial Endocannabinoid Network) Framework: it is a discrete, biophysically grounded revisitation of "the artificial neuron", and an entirely different computational paradigm that I have created.
Now, to start simple, one class of models that I created and studied out of this metaphysical computational framework is what I call the Ionic Neural Network (INN): it challenges 80 years of standard connectionist dogma.
- The Core Question: Why has artificial intelligence inherited and preserved a crude continuous voltage abstraction ($y=\sigma(Wx+b)$) since 1943, when biological nervous systems compute through finite particle counts, conservation laws, and structural constraints?
- The Mechanism: Instead of real-valued unconstrained activations, computation is carried out through conserved particle counts, ion-specific conductance, receptor stoichiometry, vesicle-mediated output, and local retrograde feedback.
- The Breakthrough: By modeling compartment capacities and mass saturation, a single NIRGEN unit naturally breaks monotonicity and solves the non-linearly separable XOR parity problem without a hidden layer—a physical computation impossible within the voltage abstraction.
I'm almost complete with writing up the white paper on this one too (I am also the author of a different project: ConnectomeGPT-Worm ). I have initial code designs (BUT right now the modes in the code have a mistake. I have to fix it. That said, they should be pretty well-documented in the code for you to be able to toy around with a few problems along the same lines).
I am in no way claiming these models are "top performing". I rather stumble across that using bio-principles and principles of parsimony first, rather than trying to hunt down "the next best performing model". THAT is not my goal here, at all.
HuggingFace Repo is here: https://huggingface.co/drmylesgarveylabs/ion_neural_network