iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Eric Leonardis

CJ Melendez @cjmelendez.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

It’s me

Eric Leonardis @ericleonardis.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

New @polygon.com article with an interview from me again! We discussed why horror games bring horror fans comfort and how horror serves a useful evolutionary function because it creates a safe space to reflect on and plan how we would react during a predator attack or zombie apocalypse.

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Eric Leonardis @ericleonardis.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Check out my new interview in @polygon.com about the science behind aggression and ritual destruction in the video game Virtue and a Sledgehammer using evidence from neuroscience and archaeology about seeking control in times of grief. www.polygon.com/virtue-sledg...

polygon.com

Virtue and a Sledgehammer hits different. We asked a neuroscientist to explain why.

It's all about taking back control

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Eric Leonardis @ericleonardis.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

Had a great panel at Comic Con! We got to hear about virtual production from Michael Ralla (Oscar nominated VFX supervisor, Sinners), Nicole Pacent (Criminal Minds, Wolverine videogame), Noam and Sappir Argov (director/writer, VERSE), Phia (The Virtual Reality Show), and myself!

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Eric Leonardis @ericleonardis.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Don’t miss our PANEL at SDCC: “From Short Films to Sinners” How Hollywood Creates Virtual Worlds …And You Can Too" Saturday, 7/25 3-4 PM Room 25ABC 🎬 Michael Ralla (VFX Ryan Coogler's Sinners), Noam Argov + Sappir Argov, Nicole Pacent, Sophia Bollinger, myself and moderator @cinebeth.bsky.social

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Eric Leonardis @ericleonardis.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Busy schedule for SD Comic Con Int'l this year! I will be doing an official panel, short film screening, and DJing an afterparty! The panel "From Short Films to Sinners: How Hollywood Creates Virtual Worlds . . . and You Can Too" features Michael Ralla (VFX Sinners, Avengers) and ... 🧵

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Eric Leonardis @ericleonardis.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Had a blast training volunteers from the @comicconmuseum.bsky.social for Animal Communication 101: Doctor Who edition. We discussed nonverbal communication strategies used by animals and our favorite Dr. Who aliens. Thanks to @melissatruth.bsky.social + Angel DeLuz for having me!

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Eric Leonardis @ericleonardis.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Our short film VERSE will have its world premiere at Tribeca Film Festival on Saturday, June 6th, 8:15pm, Shorts Theater in NYC! It was a blast acting as scientific advisor for this film to edit the script for scientific accuracy and help secure grant funding for the film. West coast dates soon!

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Eric Leonardis @ericleonardis.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

I presented about modeling motor control in the mouse arm at the Salk Neuroscience Symposium today! The pressure was high, I had to present AFTER two of my neuroscience heroes: Eve Marder and Markus Meister! How am I supposed to follow that?? Thankful that it went well! 🤓

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Eric Leonardis @ericleonardis.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

Had a blast presenting my poster at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) at the Simulated Bodies conference at Janelia about musculoskeletal imitation and transfer learning of mouse forelimb reaching with Talmo Pereira and Eiman Azim labs! 1/2

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Eric Leonardis @ericleonardis.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

Redesigned my personal website! Featuring my computational neuro research, sci comm outreach, and film consulting. Video from our Comic Con panel with Fleet Science, my "Body Horror and the Brain" lecture @neurohumanitiesn.bsky.social and many collabs @cinebeth.bsky.social 🔗 ericleonardis.github.io

ericleonardis.github.io

Eric Leonardis, PhD

Postdoctoral fellow in computational neuroscience at the Salk Institute. Research, science communication, and film consulting.

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Eric Leonardis @ericleonardis.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

I made a website for House Music Fridays! Check out the Events page for upcoming events and past flyers, you can sign up for our email list there! There is info about the night, socials, residents and guest DJs, photos, and 46 hours of mixes. hmfsd.github.io

hmfsd.github.io

House Music Fridays

10 years of exceptional house music every Friday at Air Conditioned Lounge, San Diego.

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Eric Leonardis @ericleonardis.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

I put together a playlist of all the past House Music Fridays mixes I could find. 44 hours of high quality house music for your listening pleasure! Featuring some of the best house DJs in the business, and I have a few mixes on there too. Here’s the link: on.soundcloud.com/rFDxz7Rghnrf...

soundcloud.com

House Music Fridays at AC Lounge

DJ sets from House Music Fridays at the Air Conditioned Lounge in San Diego.

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Eric Leonardis @ericleonardis.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

Noticeably a lot more dynamical systems stuff at COSYNE this year 👍 love to see it 😎

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Eric Leonardis @ericleonardis.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

Presented my work on musculoskeletal imitation learning in the mouse at the Computational and Systems Neuroscience (COSYNE) conference in Lisbon! 🇵🇹 I am very excited to share our new massively parallel framework in JAX for training biomechanical models to perform dexterous motor control tasks.

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Eric Leonardis @ericleonardis.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

Poster session from 8:30pm-11:30pm? Whose idea was this? Am I being punished? did I do something wrong? 😭lol

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Eric Leonardis @ericleonardis.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

Drop your chat gpt subscription and switch to Claude

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Eric Leonardis @ericleonardis.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

Join me at House Music Fridays this week! I will be opening for Dj Neo24 (SF) and BPMSLIDE (Chicago) , should be a great time! Hope to see you at Air Conditioned Lounge in North Park, San Diego this Friday 9pm-2am. Event page here: ra.co/events/2353768

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Eric Leonardis @ericleonardis.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

Had a blast giving my lecture “Computational Ethology and Embodied AI” with Professor Federico Rossano’s class CogSci 13 class at UC San Diego! We discussed how to quantify animal behavior with 2D and 3D pose estimation, and use imitation learning to reproduce animal behaviors we observe in the lab!

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Eric Leonardis @ericleonardis.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

New mix up! This was my warmup set for Duke Shin and Jesse Austin at HMF on Feb 6. deep and jackin house with some disco vibes too. Give it a listen and let me know what you think! LINK HERE: on.soundcloud.com/STttkCl2KqZH...

soundcloud.com

Eric Leonardis - House Music Fridays with Duke Shin at AC Lounge - 2/6/26

Eric Leonardis opening set at House Music Fridays supporting headliner Duke Shin (Chicago) and Jesse Austin at Air Conditioned Lounge on 2/6/26

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Eric Leonardis @ericleonardis.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

Great times with the Grammy award winner and Chicago legend himself Gene Hunt who played a killer set at HMF Air Conditioned Lounge 🚀 and solid vibes as always from your host Matthew Brian 🏠🎶 bringing the highest quality house music to you every Friday in San Diego 👊💥

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Eric Leonardis @ericleonardis.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

“notwithstanding the mob's recent hysteria about something of no significance whatsoever, namely personal emails.” <— is this a joke? this is cult worship… it’s significant if you’re not a sycophant

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Eric Leonardis @ericleonardis.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

Excited to share that my poster, “Musculoskeletal Imitation Learning: Physics-Aware Constraints Promote Naturalistic Muscle Activity,” has been accepted to the Computational and Systems Neuroscience (COSYNE) Conference in Lisbon 🇵🇹 this March 🤩👏 Looking forward to great discussions with colleagues.

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Eric Leonardis @ericleonardis.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

Thanks to @gluzmania.bsky.social for having me at her class Science, Technology and Society: Science Communication at University of Alberta for a Q&A about my work as a scientific advisor for films. We discussed David Kirby's book Lab Coats in Hollywood and writing science on screen. What a blast!

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Eric Leonardis @ericleonardis.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

In case you missed it, check out my new all vinyl mix with FeeLit Records Sunday Livestream! 🎶 Link here: youtu.be/m6gSsHe2lDs?...

youtu.be

House Music & Jackin House | All Vinyl Mix | Eric Leonardis | FeeLIT Records #HouseMusic

YouTube video by FeeLit Records

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Eric Leonardis @ericleonardis.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

Check out my vinyl mix on the Feelit Records Sunday Livestream out today!!! A selection of my favorite house records, most of which I bought from this store! Thanks to Markalan and DJ Valerian for having me out! Much love! www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6gS...

youtube.com

House Music & Jackin House | All Vinyl Mix | Eric Leonardis | FeeLIT Records #HouseMusic

YouTube video by FeeLit Records

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Eric Leonardis @ericleonardis.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

We just got the Sprout robot from @faunarobotics.bsky.social in @talmo.bsky.social ’s lab. Usually robots mean weeks of debugging pain before experiments even start. This time we powered it on and got the robot to stand, walk and teleop on Day 1. Respect to the engineers that made setup so smooth!

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Eric Leonardis @ericleonardis.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

Join me for my all vinyl DJ set this Wednesday 6-9pm at The Office SD for Dance Klassique Vinyl Sessions

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Eric Leonardis @ericleonardis.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

Hope you can join me for my All Vinyl DJ set this Wednesday 1/28 for Dance Klassique Vinyl Sessions with host Ivan Gregory at The Office SD! I will be spinning some downtempo, boogie, disco and deep house on the wheels of steel! I hope you can join us to warm up the night 6-9pm

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Eric Leonardis @ericleonardis.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

A real tour de force today by Mala Murthy @princetonneuro.bsky.social at @salkinstitute.bsky.social about her work with @sebastianseung.bsky.social on leveraging the complete connectome of the fly brain to understand social behavior in fruit flies. Incredible work!

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Reposted by Eric Leonardis

Eric Leonardis @ericleonardis.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

Check out my new mix with Mimi’s House, episode 002! A deep and funky house mix for your listening pleasure. Big thanks to Mimi Raza for the opportunity to share some deep funky house tunes. Keep an eye on this channel for more great mixes! soundcloud.com/mimishouse/e...

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Eric Leonardis @ericleonardis.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

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Eric Leonardis @ericleonardis.bsky.social · 18/01/2026

Had a blast watching Communion with Bonkers Ass Cinema and Film Geeks SD @cinebeth.bsky.social at the Digital Gym SD 🎥🎞️ Nothing like watching Christopher Walken tap dance with aliens on the big screen👽 Thanks Matt for braving the alien costume that doubles as a sauna 💦😰

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Eric Leonardis @ericleonardis.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

This technology is not secure. LLMs can be easily jailbroken. There is no guarantee whatsoever that it won’t tell users military secrets with the right prompt. This is cybersecurity 101!

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Eric Leonardis @ericleonardis.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

For those who missed House Music Fridays last night, here is a 4 hour recording of Jesse Austin and I going back to back for your listening pleasure! Building gradually from deep house and disco into higher energy jackin and acid vibes. Enjoy! Link: soundcloud.com/eric-leonard...

soundcloud.com

Jesse Austin B2B Eric Leonardis – Live at House Music Fridays, AC Lounge – 2026-01-09

Live recorded DJ set at House Music Fridays at Air Conditioned Lounge, San Diego on January 9th, 2026. 4 hour B2B with HMF residents Jesse Austin and Eric Leonardis, building gradually from deep house

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Reposted by Eric Leonardis

Magnus Johansson @pgmj.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

"40 percent of MRI signals do not correspond to actual brain activity"; "Since tens of thousands of fMRI studies worldwide are based on this assumption, our results could lead to opposite interpretations in many of them.” www.tum.de/en/news-and-...

tum.de

40 percent of MRI signals misinterpreted

Interpretation of numerous MRI data may be incorrect: blood flow is not a reliable indicator of brain activity.

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Eric Leonardis @ericleonardis.bsky.social · 26/12/2025

My track “Brood Groove” was selected for the Best of Piston Recordings 2025 compilation! OUT NOW! Link here: www.traxsource.com/track/141743... 🤩 Piston Recordings is based in Setúbal, Portugal. This comp features a bunch of incredible artists from around the world!

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Eric Leonardis @ericleonardis.bsky.social · 24/12/2025

A little present under the tree for me🎄 My track "Brood Groove" was selected for the Best of Piston Recordings 2025 compilation! Pre-order for the 12/26 release!

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Reposted by Eric Leonardis

Tim Verstynen @tdverstynen.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

How do biological agents learn for the future? Our perspective piece on the value of prospective learning in neuroscience is finally out. This is part of a long running collaboration with @kordinglab.bsky.social & Josh Vogelstein (as well as many other people) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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Eric Leonardis @ericleonardis.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

Manifold implies the existence of pedifold 🤔

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Eric Leonardis @ericleonardis.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

I’ll be DJing at House Music Fridays this week supporting Aaron Paar (LA)! Hope to see you at AC Lounge Fri 9pm-2am!

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Eric Leonardis @ericleonardis.bsky.social · 07/12/2025

I presented our work today at NeurIPS @neuripsconf.bsky.social @dataonbrainmind.bsky.social “Massively Parallel Imitation Learning of Mouse Forelimb Musculoskeletal Reaching Dynamics” with @talmo.bsky.social and @eazim.bsky.social about modeling motor control with MIMIC-MJX: arxiv.org/abs/2511.21848

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Eric Leonardis @ericleonardis.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

Hope to see you at the @neuripsconf.bsky.social @dataonbrainmind.bsky.social Workshop! I will presenting our poster “Massively Parallel Imitation Learning of Mouse Forelimb Musculoskeletal Reaching Dynamics” @talmo.bsky.social @eazim.bsky.social Dec 7, SDCC 🦾🧠 arxiv.org/abs/2511.21848

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Eric Leonardis @ericleonardis.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

Cool poster for the cinematography nerds that I enjoyed from @NeurIPSConf "CineTechBench: A Benchmark for Cinematographic Technique Understanding and Generation" Wang et al arxiv.org/pdf/2505.15145

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Eric Leonardis @ericleonardis.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

Very interesting panel discussion about alignment challenges and possibilities and guardrails for improving AI safety in agentic AI models w/ @yoshuabengio.bsky.social Dawn Song @hannahrosekirk.bsky.social @eegilbert.org and Monojit Choudhury I hope we can discuss these issues more as a community

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Eric Leonardis @ericleonardis.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

Got to check out @sonyai.bsky.social @sonyplaystation.bsky.social at @neuripsconf.bsky.social 2025 featuring game AI racing agent Gran Turismo Sophy and diffusion models 👏🔥 cool stuff!

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