Hello everyone! I hope you are doing great. With this title I would like to give an easy beginner guide to those who would like to know a bit more about B/P and this curious world of blam and protection points. The guide might be updated if people give me more correct info since it's based on my personal experience and I still consider myself a beginner B/P grinder. Another reason why I decided to make this guide is that for some concepts such as B/P bonus there are not exhaustive explanations besides the usual wiki page or help/FAQ page which are pretty simple and don't go in depth. I will use my OC Xiang to show with images some stuff and because I like to make things silly XD

Ok, without any further ado let's begin.

UPDATE 31/03/2025: added a small tip about the importance of blams in speeding up the rank leveling-up process.

What is a blam?

Let's begin with the negative stuff or better with one of the things that characterize this system of judging movies and games that enter the Portal. It's so important to have become a verb itself in Newgrounds lingo: blam and to blam.

Basically blams are submissions that have been deleted from the Portal whether they are movies or games. From this derives the concept of blam point: a point earned for each deleted submission in the Portal, for example take a look at my statistics:

It means that I managed to get 162 submission deleted at the moment I'm writing this guide. Each deleted submission from the Portal turned into a blam point that my account gained.

If a user votes a 0-1.5 on a movie and it is subsequently deleted (see deletion qualifications below), the user receives one blam point. Movies and games are deleted if they fall below the listed score at the listed number of votes (if it gets a vote of 1.0 then 40 voters are enough to blam it):

40 votes: 1.0

50 votes: 1.5

60 votes: 2.0

If I recall well decades ago 100 votes were necessary to make something blammable. For those who have been on the site for years you will have noticed the change in the numbers required to blam a movie or game. I will quote what Tom said in the news of 6 December, 2024 Congrats Horizonauts & Site Updated!

Movie & Game Under Judgment Update

We made some tweaks to the Judgment process this week, reducing the max vote threshold to 60 and raising the blam threshold from < 1.75 to < 2.00. This means entries will finish judgment more quickly and get blammed (removed) more frequently.

What is a save?

Saves are the opposite of blams: they are submission that managed to stay in the Portal because they reached the minimum threshold to pass judgment. Every time you give a positive score and this gets summed to other peoples' positive votes, and the submission passes judgement you get a protection/save point. For example in my account I have 2,215 saves.

So every time you vote for a submission in UJ Portal section you award a point: blam point if it gets deleted, save point if it passes.

What is B/P bonus?

B/P bonus is an important tool that increases the voting power of a user, without it the voting power would be strictly based upon experience and increasing one's vote power would become more difficult. Basically it's a number that increases one's vote power. Thanks to this website you can check your stats, all of your stats, you can have a very in-depth, detailed view at your own profile and see yourself from a different and new perspective. Just insert your username and you will see everything related to your account, BP included:

https://www.wkrconcepts.com/nglogs/index.php?id=home

The total BP is given by the sum of blams and saves, so in my case 162 + 2,215= 2,377 this result gives a hint of the rank, here the full list:

So what is that percentage you see in B/P bonus? It's a number that takes your current vote power (5.99 in my case) and then adds an extra value of that amount to it, so for example:

5.99 X 0.16= 0.9584

5.99 + 0.9584= 6.9484

You can see that my vote base or vote power is 5.99 but with the 16% of B/P bonus it increases to 6.95, pretty cool huh?

pro-tip:

if you want to grind "faster" the bonus try to have an almost balanced number of blams and saves in order to speed up the process. I know finding blammable stuff may be difficult compared to past years, but in the long run it will help you level up the rank more smoothly than relying only on saves which are easier to get (I read that decades ago you could get a good chunk of blams in a day, even 80-100, now it's become more difficult. I can get almost 20 blams in a day if I am active almost an average of a hour). For example today I reached the rank of Private in a relative quick way thanks to my blams that summed to the save points instead of waiting to only reach 2,499 save points. So if you want to reach more blam points try to act like an active predator and hunt mainly for them for a while in order to reach a balanced number as much as possible.

Now that you know the basics of these concepts, let's go a bit in depth on how to vote with awareness and consciousness, so if you have the stat whore mentality (one who cares more about his/her/their NG profile stats more than the quality and honesty of the vote, this applies to every other NG stats though) then this guide is not for you.

Where to start?

Go to the Portal, once there you will see the list of movies and games ready to be judged by you:

(yes, you can see I've already voted on plenty of them minus the A-rated stuff simply because I'm not interested in that type of works)

Hunt for the red

This tip works only for the initial stages of your apprenticeship as a B/P grinder since you probably have to fully grasp what B/P is. I used it a lot when I was still a newbie in actively figuring out what was blam-worthy. When you see a movie/game highlighted in red, it means that the submission is about to be deleted from the Portal. Click immediately on it and give a low score, I personally zero vote it simply because it's the only case where I don't even take a look at it since it's already on the verge of deletion so why wasting my time watching or playing something that is already about to be deleted. It's like beating a dead horse. I initially used this method a lot because I didn't fully understand what blams and protection points were and I lacked experience and knowledge of what it's worthy of being blammed. So I used this cheap method to gain some blam points but I don't suggest to rely solely on it once you've gained enough experience to discern what to blam and what to protect.

Pros:

• cheap way to get a blam point in a passive way
• useful tool to grasp the core concept of blam point

Cons:

• very slow way to gain blam points in the long run especially if you are an active blam hunter
• not that useful once you are experienced enough to actively and proactively hunt for them

When to blam?

One of the things I love about NG when it comes to decide how to vote stuff is the lack of a prescriptive status quo. There is not a fixed rule that dictates one to always give a 0 vote under certain conditions except for those submissions that truly deserves a 0 vote. So what are usually 0-worthy submissions?

0 vote worthy submissions:

Extremely low effort animations, very short loop animations, effortless stickmen fights, effortless Madness animations, animation tests, Madness/stickmen animation tests, FNF short, loop animations, stolen stuff (in that case flag it with the appropriate type of report for the mod to review it), extremely effortless animations with no background, AI-generated stuff since it's not allowed here, everything that doesn't look effort or tutorial-educated, flashes and games with lots of bugs that need to be re-made (i.e. the game that doesn't even load or it's a black/white screen).

1 vote worthy submissions:

Here you find all submissions that still deserve a low vote but are not complete shit, usually low effort 30-45 seconds long movies unless they are good and in that case they get a higher vote from me, demos/previews that aren't any good and flashes (movies or games, doesn't matter) with lots of bugs but looks promising. In the past even good test animations got blammed easily than today because at that time people were more brutal at blamming stuff. I've found some very good test/project animations that, despite being shorter than 30-45 seconds, looked very good due to the presence of a background, fluid animation, funny elements and a short but effective plot in it. So don't take these traits as absolute, it's just a descriptive nature of what is blammable and what not. Nothing it's prescriptive here when we surpass the 0 vote.

2 vote worthy submissions:

This is the grey area between the blam and protect, now with the new threshold (2.0) things are deleted more easily and I admit thanks to this update my blams are gradually increasing along with the fact I've gained more experience at recognizing blam-worthy submissions. Now in this pool basically all 1 vote worthy submissions but slightly better fall into this category but they are not good enough to get a full 3 star vote.

(yes I blammed this video since it was an upload of a copyrighted animated series episode, another case to blam and give zero vote, zero tolerance for such type of acts and in this case I also flagged it as stolen material)

pro-tip:

when seeing a work check the title (if you find something like "animation test", "my first animation" go for a blam most of the time because a good 90% of the time they are effortless works), the description (notice if it has some suspicious elements that link to something that has been stolen, even in the case of copyrighted music that is linked in the description), the account who uploaded it (accounts with numbers are suspicious of stealing stuff, recently created accounts that usually don't read rules first are more likely to post rule-breaking stuff so blam-worthy stuff and flag-worthy stuff) and last but not least the video itself (look carefully if there are signatures that can help you to track the real origin of the video in case it's stolen or it's AI-generated, and trust me I could see some AI crap not only because it's was evident by the video itself but also because the signature had the logo of the AI-generated video tool).

When it comes to blams I usually blam and move on, but if you want to leave a review you can always hide your score and give a constructive review despite the low rating:

You can hide your score

To the save and beyond!

Everything that is 2.5 stars is something that I usually want for it to stay because I want to give the author a chance even though I don't think that anybody would actively seek this particular content out. It is one of the millions of forgettable submissions that nobody would miss if the servers got purged of them. Starting from 3 stars is usually the average of votes I give for UJ movies (for games I am less forgiving and I pretend higher standards simply because I see the videogame as the quintessential nature of art due to the combination of visual arts, music, animation and ofc game).

Aesthetically pleasing movies/games (even if there are flaws, I don't care), smoothly integrated works, good humour/parody/idea and everything that has the potential to get better in the future deserve this vote from me. Experimental movies have a higher chance to be protected by me because I love when people pushes their boundaries and comfort zones and in this case I don't even care about the aesthetic, the more surreal, the better^^

4 and 5 rates are for those submissions that make me say "wow, I enjoyed a lot this submission" both aesthetically, story-wise, animation techniques-wise and from the perspective of the message conveyed (whether it's humorous or serious). A detailed background, smooth animation, creativity, nice character design, the fun/entertainment inner value, and a well-written plot are all elements that enter in the territory of "Art". If I see that there is something promising for a 4.5/5.0 I give 4 star, if there is something still slightly missing I give a 4.5. But sometimes I give straight a very high rating when something moves me emotionally this strongly that I enjoyed the work a lot or I already know the creator for making very good quality works.

pro-tip:

If you want to maximize and optimize at the same time both the base voting power and the adjusted voting power through the B/P bonus whenever you start a new day on NG and want to vote things, go first to the UJ Portal section and start vote the first five submissions. This way you will increase your vote power aaaand will accumulate first blam and/or protection points.

Soooo where do the blammed submissions go?

Here:

This is the cemetery where all deleted submissions go and you can navigate through past submissions like I did it here. Notice the titles of some of them, sometimes even the title can guide you in blamming something because you immediately see that the person is doing it just for the sake of it or because he/she/they want to fill their gallery with something, thinking Newgrounds is Dumpgrounds or Testgrounds XD

Last advice:

I know that one is more than free to approach this site as one wishes, however I personally believe that if one really wants to nourish a creative community and creativity itself, and cares about the site as whole, it is important to take the time to look at the various submissions even if they require a lot of time as much as possible if one has the time. One is not obliged to watch and play all submissions and if one is too long (and by long I mean 1 hour), one can always select the type and length. It's also a way to pay respect to the person who made said submissions after noticing they are save-worthy ofc, for blammable stuff see points above. They spent time to make something and share part of their being, so it's the minimum that I take my time to interact with them, vote them and if I feel even to review them (I take my reviews very seriously, even more than my voting power).

Final thoughts:

Well, my guide ends here but as I said at the beginning if people correct me or give me further technical info about blams, saves and B/P bonus I am more than happy to update info with proper credits. After all this guide is meant for beginners like me and I shared my experiences that allowed me to extract these type of info since I wasn't fully satisfied with what I read in both forums and especially the help/FAQ section. Below you find the references from which I took a small part of my info and images. No need to give exposure to stolen stuff used as example of blatant blam-worthy submissions. Yes, I used Pico emoticon since he was the voting icon for flash movies/games Portal before the Tankman took the place and now.....

Enjoy the show!

References:

Expert's Guide to NG-DX

https://newgrounds.fandom.com/wiki/Blam_%26_Protect_Rank

Hello everyone, I hope you are having serene times especially now that Easter is gradually approaching. And speaking of something that is approaching I would like to share a little sneak peek of what I am doing for Pico Day since last year I couldn't participate due to the many exams I had:

This is the lineart of something that won't be a single work as I plan to draw the trio. I hope to finish it in time but since I am done with collabs I joined these months and I am relatively more free in terms of free time, I think I can manage it.

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Another curious thing I discovered in these days while browsing the image folder of the assets folder from FNF game I've installed in my PC was this:

I personally don't know if this is just a test from the creators of the game when it comes to character select placement or a possible foreshadowing of the future playable characters. If someone knows more feel free to correct my assumptions.

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Totally unrelated to these two topics, I plan to continue studying Russian language by myself despite the course is over and I passed the university exam. I will miss both the course, teachers, students and even the exam itself but this won't prevent me from continuing studying it and keep writing those Russian Diaries which helped me a lot in shaping my perception and study skills of this language.

Well, that's all for now. See you next time and drink plenty of water!

Hello everyone and good day/evening (depending where you are), I hope everything is alright but speaking of "being alright" I take this opportunity to spread some news that, I know most of you already know because now it's in the site main page's news but I would like to take part with my very small audience compared to the one these two people have. I am referring to BrandyBuizel and ADR3-N, two amazing and talented artists I discovered thanks to Tankmas ADVENTure and Audio forum respectively. I can't directly help them financially but I want to spread this nonetheless. Tomorrow I will spread it on Discord too with my other friends in the hope more people can reach or just spread it by themselves.

1) BrandyBuizel

I discovered him because he is responsible for having helped organized the Tankmas ADVENTure, the Endless Summer Lovin' Collab, not to mention the cool short movie LUCKYBOY:

Seriously when I watched it the first time it was love at first sight because of how cool animation looked and the different media employed to deliver a fun and relatable story. Go check it out, if you haven't.

Sadly he has been facing some difficult times recently especially on the job front, but if you want to learn more check the Gofundme page which explains more in depth the problems he's currently facing. I am very glad to see that, at the moment I am writing, 43% has been raised, but there is still need of other people help/spread.

2) ADR3-N

As I said above, I discovered this talented artist first through forum threads of the Audio section, mainly the Audio Portal clean-up because I want to learn how to distinguish AI-generated music to flag the shit out of it, seriously thank you for making me discover this gem because I am gradually learning the pattern of AI-generated music (at least with Suno). I also want to thank from the bottom of my heart Quest, without your efforts and skills we wouldn't be able to learn these things and I agree that education is a strong tool to fight off AI-generated music. Thank you, really!

Asides from the forum threads I also discovered ADR3-N's talent thanks to this wonderful piece:

I fell in love with her music and way to deliver lyrics in such powerful way that energizes your mind and spirit, so I am listening to other amazing pieces such as:

These are her Ko-fi and Gumroad pages where you can support her (the latter even has free goodies in case you are a music producer) since her delicate financial grip that is affecting her life.

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If you prefer to go directly to their respective blogs here the links:

https://droid.newgrounds.com/news/post/1518995

https://adr3-n.newgrounds.com/news/post/1519544

I wish you guys all the best, take care and remember that you are not alone, I'm seeing the community is trying to help and support. You rock!

I know I am a nobody here with a small following but it doesn't hurt trying to spread at least. As I said tomorrow I will spread it on Discord servers I am in to reach more people, thank you to those who have donated, and thank you for reading this blog. See you next time!

Hello everybody! Today I would like to promote another underrated artists that was suggested by my friend ChronoNG: Slushie Sweetheart

If I had to sum up her style in one sentence it would be: neon colour happiness.

And this is clearly noticeable since her first works such as:

A characteristics element that I've noticed looking at her gallery was the use of thick lineart around the character and this is well balanced with linearts of different thickness within the character itself and the bright colours like it's well shown here in these two pieces:

I seriously love how vivid the colours are but other elements that make her art truly enjoyable are the different angles from which the characters are depicted, because it creates a nice deconstruction of the overall composition. This other piece is amazing:

Explosion of vivid colours, dynamic pose and quite tasty visually speaking (the background helps to enhance this feeling).

In these two pieces another element I love, asides from the bright colours and fun design, are the strokes that combine with shading and lighting creating a cool and different way of building a three-dimensional effect. Her art is really enjoyable to look at and I personally think that reflects her personality too: fun, bright and lively. So why not giving her some support and hit that follow button? I would love to see more people discovering her. See you next time!

Hello everyone! I hope you are doing great! It's been 5 days since I reached 200 fans but I didn't want to celebrate it at first simply because I had put this post up and wanted to leave it for at least a week (feel free to drop your best work for a review if you want). But now I take the opportunity to say thank you for the 200 people who decided to follow this crazy bird person who likes to share stuff, fun facts and a bit of support to the fantastic and talented people who enrich this website:

An extremely simple draw not that different, from a textual point of view, from the drawing I did for the 69 fans where some of my OCs were featured. Here I wanted to show them more in detail or at least in full body. Yes, the "F" and "N" are not random in their font.

Once again, thank you from the bottom of my heart for deciding to follow me^^ it means a lot, it's really nice being appreciated I will be honest and I will do my best to keep being the person I am. I am also happy to see I am gradually reaching 100 reviews, because, even if I haven't stated it explicitly in my resolutions of the new year for NG, it's one of my goals for this 2025. I hope to surpass it and write even more reviews to help, support, share my thought and in general have fun with the community.

I am also participating some new cool and fun collabs like the Crazy Clown collab and the Tarot Card collab, while preparing at the same time for Russian oral exam I have this month since I passed the written exam in January with a very good result since I studied all A2 level in just two months.

I also started drawing the 6 fanart challenge I started last year, first two characters have been drawn. I can't wait to finish it and post it. In the meantime see you soon!

Heavily inspired by this blog I discovered while scrolling the artists news: https://variablegr.newgrounds.com/news/post/1515041

I would like to do the same but with the following things to keep in mind:

1. I will review only things posted on Newgrounds
2. I will review art, music, videogames and movies
3. It will take some time to review stuff since I like to take time to fully experience the work I am interacting with

So without any further ado, link in the comment section your best work, I will review it, give feedback/constructive criticism to it and rate it. I like the idea of giving a bit of support to artists. So now, let's have fun!

While I was scrolling down the artists news I stumbled across this journal and I thought to share it despite not being able to directly help the person who experienced this nasty incident, if you can spread her journal is fine too so more people can reach her and eventually directly help her:

https://artistiacons.newgrounds.com/news/post/1514530

I know the person in question may not want to talk about details of how it happened but I want to take opportunity to mention possible causes of this event by using this website that shows some interesting causes of it:

Physical credit card theft still happens. If you forget your wallet somewhere or your wallet is stolen, a criminal can snatch your card and use it right away. A stolen or lost credit card has the unique advantage that it’s ready to use without requiring any extra steps.

Your mail can be an easy source for credit card fraud. If you throw away a pre-approved card, accidentally toss a replacement card, or forget to shred your statements, anyone can take them out of the trash and use them.

Perhaps surprisingly, family members are often the perpetrators of credit card fraud. A family member or friend you trust could have access to your cards and use them without permission. Or, a member of your family could open a credit card in your name.

These small devices collect credit card data from the card’s magnetic strips, which criminals then use to create a cloned card. Thieves install skimmers on ATMs, gas pumps, and other publicly available card readers.

Shimmers are the natural evolution of card skimmers. But instead of stealing data from your card’s magnetic strip, they go inside the reader and steal your chip information. 

Open wireless connections at places like coffee shops and airports are notoriously unsafe. Hackers can use what’s called a “man-in-the-middle” (MiTM) attack to intercept your connection and collect any data you share, including credit card information.

Many modern cards use radio-frequency identification (RFID) for contactless payment. A thief close enough to you with the right device can use this technology to “scrape” your credit card information. There are very few reports of this scam, but it could grow as RFID becomes more common.

Phishing is a type of social engineering attack designed to scam you online and give up your sensitive information. A phishing message pretends to be from an organization you trust like your bank or the IRS. But if you share information by clicking on the link or responding to the email/text, the data goes directly to a hacker.

Phishing attacks can also try to get you to download attachments that include malware. This harmful software can steal sensitive data from your devices and share it with hackers. One common type of criminal software — called a keylogger — records everything you type. This includes credit card numbers, passwords, emails, and more, and sends them to the hacker.

Phishing attacks can also take place over the phone. A scammer will call posing as an authority figure who needs to confirm your credit card information. Often the scammer will use serious threats — like jail time for unpaid taxes or criminal activity on your card — to get you to act.

A rogue restaurant employee can copy your card data when you’re not looking (this scam is called shoulder surfing). Or, a call center worker can write down your information when you pay via credit card over the phone. I remember something like that happened in Japan where a man, with a strong eidetic memory, stole credit/debit card info from customers and drained their accounts.

Hackers use different types of cyber attacks to inject malicious software onto website forms. When you enter your info — including credit card numbers — they get access to them. 

Researchers found “formjacking” code on major sites like Ticketmaster, Newegg, and British Airways. In 2022, security experts detected the code on over 100 real estate websites.

A thief with login information for your credit card company can use your credit as if it were their own. This form of identity theft is particularly dangerous as a fraudster can use account information to apply for new credit, take out fraudulent loans, and collect personal data.

Research shows that data breaches increased by 15% from Q2 to Q3 of 2022. Billions of account details have been leaked from Facebook, T-Mobile, Experian, LinkedIn, and more. A single data breach can expose tens of millions of credit card numbers to hackers on the Dark Web. 

https://www.idtheftcenter.org/post/q3-2022-data-breach-report-compromises-victims-up-record-high-year-unlikely/

Many websites where you shop or pay for services offer to keep your card on file. While this can be convenient, it also means that if a hacker later accesses the company databases, they can steal that saved data(1).

https://privacy.com/blog/how-can-someone-use-my-credit-card-without-having-it

References and footnotes:

(1) https://www.aura.com/learn/how-do-people-steal-credit-card-numbers

While I was searching for some old draw made when I was teen/late teen for this thread, I also found some drawings I made during my first years of University:

Yes those are first drawings of Russel and Jake my corvids OCs. The peregrine falcon is Jake's arch enemy XD Since their start as OCs, I always imagined the relationship between him and Russel similar to that of boke and tsukkomi of manzai comedy, but with ages I also got inspired to make them evolve into a bromance similar to the one you see in Book IX (lines 225 to 241) of Iliad between Achilles and Patroclus. This draw sums it up:

(it will be digitalized in future)

Silly drawing of Near trying to build his card castle. The pose was referenced from Death Note manga, one of my favourite Japanese works. In the next drawing (not posted here) Near asks Anthony Rester to bring the cat out of the SPK headquarter. I always loved Death Note style, it's one of my favourite and I try to emulate it as much as possible because it's visually very pleasant to look at.

Ok these two drawings are based on the dialogues and interaction between Michaela Dietz (Amethyst's voice actress) and Jesse Zuke (former storyboard artist and storyboard revisionist for Steven Universe). Jesse Zuke has always been my favoruite storyboard artist in the Crewniverse, I love their personality, I love their style (my favourite along with Rebecca Sugar's one). It's a deep shame they had to delete their Twitter accounts and other social medias because of harassment (I suspect transphobia) and to all who harassed them: fuck you!

This is a golden-shouldered parrot (Psephotellus chrysopterygius) a rare bird of southern Cape York Peninsula, in Queensland, Australia, classified as Endangered due mostly to an increase in mid-story vegetation, which increases predation. A major conservation project is underway on Artemis Station to save the species from extinction. I discovered this species thanks to a former friend who had a scientist OC based on this species. I really love the colour pattern.

Some stupid silliness with the "gem shaming" trend that happened on Tumblr some years ago XD

This was more of a venting drawing I did 9 years ago. The night sky and stars were made with watercolours while the rest with coloured pencils.

This was made during 2016 Losar, the year of Male Fire Monkey. The Tibetan macaque was not a coincidence since the importance of Losar in Tibetan tradition. I am unsure if celebrating it or not this year.

A crossover between an Anime character (Shamshel from NGE) and a cartoon character (Amethyst from SU). I found the sue of whip attacks and colour scheme fitting for their interactions. I know Shamshel is a lot bigger than Amethyst, in this drawing he has the same size of Amethyst's. I don't do often crossovers, but this was particularly fun to do.

Just a hooded crow drawing. I liked shading the head to give those particular light features of the bird.

Like in the thread I linked above, this is one of late teen drawings I did. It was a study to memorize head scales in order to learn snake identification since they be quite challenging especially if colubrid. I love snakes to death.

That's all for now people and friends, see you next time!

ERRATA CORRIGE: I had to correct the name of the parrot species because after looking closely the dark salmon pink lower belly, I remembered it was an other parrot species that is a sister taxon to the hooded parrot (Psephotellus dissimilis). Sorry again for the confusion and wrong information.

The interesting discussion of the thread Online Safety Updates and a very unsettling comment that you can agree with though, made me want to discuss about neurotechnology and the emergence of neurorights and mental privacy. It's a thread that I am still reading and keeping an eye since I like reading all opinions shared there, they are all interesting and I agree with the majority of them concerning privacy rights and how governments don't give a damn about kids or the safety of their citizens (see the many data breaches that occurred over the years), they just care about their own power and the next election for the most part. Not to mention many of them are run by old people who know jack shit about internet, new technology and younger generations, and it's also funny how they want to teach internet safety when they are the first to use and overuse shit like FB, Meta etc. where they post their personal info.... I warn you this will be another of mine looooong blogs, so take your time to read it all if you truly wish to read a bit about it.

Neurotechnologies

Anyway let's dive into this fascinating but extremely unsettling world of neurotechnologies and neurorights. What is a neurotechnology? Well, it's any method or electronic device which interfaces with the nervous system to monitor or modulate neural activity. Common design goals for neurotechnologies include using neural activity readings to control external devices such as neuroprosthetics, altering neural activity via neuromodulation to repair or normalize function affected by neurological disorders, or augmenting cognitive abilities(1).

I leave here this interesting video about them, you can watch other videos of this channel to discover more about them from a scientific point of view:

Examples of neurotechnologies:

Deep brain stimulation, photostimulation based on optogenetics and photopharmacology, transcranial magnetic stimulation, transcranial electric stimulation and brain–computer interfaces, such as cochlear implants and retinal implants. 

This field has been around for nearly half a century but has only reached maturity in the last twenty years. Decoding basic procedures and interactions within the brain's neuronal activity is essential to integrate machines with the nervous system.

I admit this is a fascinating world that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres and integrating an electronic device with the nervous system enables monitoring and modulating neural activity as well as managing implemented machines by mental activity. Advances in these efforts are associated with developing models based on knowledge about natural processes in bio-systems that monitor and/or modulate neural activity. One promising direction evolves through studying the mother-fetus neurocognitive model(2):

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-75329-9_24

According to this model, the innate natural mechanism ensures the embryonic nervous system's correct (balanced) development(3). Because the mother-fetus interaction enables the child's nervous system to evolve with adequate biological sentience, similar environmental conditions can treat the injured nervous system. This means that the physiological processes of this natural neurostimulation during gestation underlie any noninvasive artificial neuromodulation technique and this knowledge paves the way for designing and precise tuning noninvasive brain stimulation devices in treating different nervous system diseases within the scope of modulating neural activity(4).

There are also more specialized sectors of neurotechnology that introduced concepts such as neuron-like electrodes, hybrid biotic–abiotic electrodes, planar complementary metal-oxide semiconductor systems, injectable bioconjugate nanomaterials, implantable optoelectronic microchips (I admit these sounds like names coming out straight a sci-fi series XD).

The very positive aspects of these technologies are that they can help control depression, over-activation, sleep deprivation, and many other conditions. Therapeutically they can also help improve stroke patients' motor coordination, improve brain function, reduce epileptic episodes, improve patients with degenerative motor diseases (Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, ALS), and can even help alleviate phantom pain perception. These are things I highly support for neurotechnologies or NT because when technologies is used to help others and improve the lives of those who had difficult conditions I am for it all the way, I can also understand and don't oppose its use as mere entertainment such as to control video games via brain activation.

BUT

But since those technologies are manufactured and distributed as consumer-grade devices that can be bought and used by laypersons on an everyday basis with barely or even no supervision, numerous threats arise. The use and processing of personal data of such devices raises several concerns and entails a multitude of open questions on possible moral and psychological implications, safety hazards, and data security. However not all NT work superficially some need to be surgically implanted on or within the brain and this raises deep concerns about mental privacy, neurorights, invasiveness, risks, complications, side-effects, and degree of commitment to the product required by invasive and non-invasive NT. These are all things which are still not very clear to the public. Types of NT include:

• Deep brain stimulation
• Transcrancial ultrasound stimulation (TUS)
• Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)
• Transcranial direct current stimulation (TDCS)
• Electroencephalography (EEG)
• Electrocorticography (ECoG), it relies on similar principles of EEG but it's more invasive since it's implanted on the brain's surface unlike EEG which placed around the head and scalp
• Magnetoencephalography (MEG)
• Neurotechnological implants
• Neuropsychopharmacology (i.e. sertraline, methylphenidate, and zolpidem)

The real and main concern about and around them is the object they work on: the brain. Interventions and manipulations on the brain harbour immense disruptive potential insofar as they influence the autonomous actions and self-perception of the individual. And this brings us to the concept of neurorights.

Neurorights

They are neurological rights that is to say a set of rights to freedom from abuses of neurotechnology, both for humans and for any transhumans as may eventually exist. Examples of neurorights: right not to have one's thoughts detected by others' mindreading against one's will, the right not to have one's personality altered against one's will, and others, the right not to have to work against one's will due to mental hacking by a potential employer, the right not to have to do something against one's will.

I leave here the website of the nonprofit organization that works to protect the human rights of people from the potential misuse or abuse of neurotechnology: The Neurorights Foundation.

I totally agree with Rafael Yuste, a Spanish–American neurobiologist and one of the initiators of the BRAIN Initiative announced in 2013, who wants a new international treaty on neurorights and a new international agency to make sure countries comply with it similar to what is now the International Atomic Energy Agency, which monitors the use of nuclear energy. With the speed at which these technologies go and the goal some companies held by billionaires such as Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg who are working on brain-computer interfaces that could pick up thoughts directly from your neurons and translate them into words in real time, new strong and highly strict laws and regulations must be made and enacted in order to protect what I consider one of the most important and vital rights of all: privacy and more specifically mental privacy.

What Musk and Zuckerberg are doing could one day allow you to control your phone, computer or any other futuristic tool with just your thoughts, here the announcement by Meta: https://tech.facebook.com/reality-labs/2020/3/imagining-a-new-interface-hands-free-communication-without-saying-a-word/

We are working on a system that will let people type with their brains. Specifically, we have a goal of creating a silent speech system capable of typing 100 words per minute straight from your brain – that’s five times faster than you can type on a smartphone today. This isn’t about decoding your random thoughts. Think of it like this: You take many photos and choose to share only some of them. Similarly, you have many thoughts and choose to share only some of them. This is about decoding those words you’ve already decided to share by sending them to the speech center of your brain. It’s a way to communicate with the speed and flexibility of your voice and the privacy of text. We want to do this with non-invasive, wearable sensors that can be manufactured at scale.

We also have a project directed at allowing people to hear with their skin. We are building the hardware and software necessary to deliver language through the skin.

I admit reading this passage (the piece I quoted was made in 2017) made me have goosebumps both positively (science and technology always intrigue me) and negatively (my love for privacy and myself as person makes me be quite aggressive and misoneist towards these stuff)

The short-term goal is to help patients with paralysis, by decoding their brain signals and allowing them to “speak” their thoughts without ever having to move a muscle. That could be a real public good, significantly improving quality of life for millions of people. And I agree with this and support it, BUT once again we know things will become available to the general public eventually and this raises concerns because Facebook’s long-term goal is to reach a much, much wider audience: The aim, it says, is to give all of us the ability to control digital devices from keyboards to augmented reality glasses using the power of thought alone. To do that, the company will need access to our brain data. Which, of course, raises some ethical concerns. The human participants in their study, three volunteers with epilepsy, already had electrodes surgically implanted on the surface of their brains as part of preparation for neurosurgery to treat their seizures. They listened to straightforward questions (like “How is your room currently?”) and spoke their answers out loud. The algorithm, just by reading their brain activity, decoded the answers with accuracy rates as high as 61 percent.

That’s pretty impressive, but so far the algorithm can only recognize words from a small vocabulary (like “cold,” “hot,” and “fine”). The scientists are aiming to grow its lexicon over time.

Elon Musk’s company Neuralink is developing flexible “threads” that can be implanted into a brain and could one day allow you to control your smartphone or computer with just your thoughts. Musk said he hopes to start testing in humans soon. Considering that even in China something like this has already been happening since 2019 since its government is mining data directly from workers’ brains on an industrial scale to detect changes in emotional states in employees on the production line.

For example the production lines at Hangzhou Zhongheng Electric where the workers wear caps to monitor their brainwaves, data that management then uses to adjust the pace of production and redesign workflows, according to the company. The company said it could increase the overall efficiency of the workers by manipulating the frequency and length of break times to reduce mental stress.

Police worldwide have been exploring “brain-fingerprinting” technology, which analyzes automatic responses that occur in our brains when we encounter stimuli we recognize. The claim is that this could enable police to interrogate a suspect’s brain; his brain responses would be more negative for faces or phrases he doesn’t recognize than for faces or phrases he does recognize. The tech is scientifically questionable, yet India’s police have used it since 2003, Singapore’s police bought it in 2013, and the Florida State Police signed a contract to use it in 2014 (5).

Already, there are AI-powered brain decoders that can translate into text the unspoken thoughts swirling through our minds, without the need for surgery although this tech is not yet on the market. In the meantime, you can buy lots of devices off Amazon right now that would record your brain data (like the Muse headband, which uses EEG sensors to read patterns of activity in your brain, then cues you on how to improve your meditation). Since these aren’t marketed as medical devices, they’re not subject to federal regulations; companies can collect and sell your data :)

I want also leave this study about brain-fingerprinting: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344526903_Brain_Fingerprinting_A_Warning_Against_Early_Implementation

Neurotechnologies and AI-supported devices can touch many aspects of lives such as sexual orientation. We know that there are multiple areas of the brain which have been found to display differences based on sexual orientation. Several of these can be found in the hypothalamus, including the sexually dimorphic nucleus of the preoptic area (SDN-POA) present in several mammalian species. Researchers have shown that the SDN-POA aides in sex-dimorphic mating behavior in some mammals, which is representative of human sexual orientation(6). The human equivalent to the SDN-POA is the interstitial nucleus of the anterior hypothalamus, which is also sexually dimorphic and has demonstrated dissimilar sizes between sexualities(7). There are also other POA-like brain structures in the human brain which differ between sexual orientations, such as the suprachiasmatic nucleus and the anterior hypothalamus. Using meta-analysis of neuroimaging, researchers have concluded that these areas are linked to sexual preferences in humans, which would explain why they may differ based on sexual orientation(8).

Another area of the brain which demonstrates sexual orientation differentiation is the thalamus, which is a structure involved in sexual arousal and reward. The thalamus of heterosexual individuals was found to be bigger than that of homosexual individuals: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7930173/

The placement of connections in the amygdala have been demonstrated to differ between heterosexual and homosexual individuals. The posterior cingulate cortex, a part of the occipital lobe, the region of the brain that processes visual information, has also been demonstrated to have differences based on sexual orientation. Research has shown that a couple of the areas of connection between the hemispheres of the brain have differences in their size depending on sexual orientation. The front commission was found to be wider in homosexual men than heterosexual men, and the corpus callosum was found to be larger in homosexual men than heterosexual men. Some areas of the brain which researchers looked at but did not find differences in structure between sexualities are the temporal cortex, hippocampus and putamen(10).

With neurotechnologies it might become a reality to detect a homosexual person from a heterosexual one, now image this applied to those lovely gay-friendly countries and places where they are sent to camps (coughs Chechnya coughs). But we also know AIs can be quite flawed and poisoned by biases like it happened in this study. I do appreciate that the researchers claim has in fact been peer-reviewed and is due to be published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and the authors acknowledge the limitations with regard to their sample, but maintain that they "did not build a privacy-invading tool" (here the same study in PDF: https://ai.ethicsworkshop.org/Library/case-face-orientation/wang_kosinski.pdf). This article also points out some of its limitations and potential damages studies like this might harm the LGBTQ+ community due to extreme lack of scientific knowledge from both governments and general public: https://www.sciencealert.com/here-s-what-s-really-going-on-with-that-study-saying-ai-can-detect-your-sexual-orientation

Luckily, the brain is lawyering up. Neuroscientists, lawyers, and lawmakers have been teaming up to pass legislation that would protect our mental privacy. In a first for the US, Colorado passed new legislation this week that amends the state’s privacy law to include the privacy of neural data. Now, just as fingerprints and facial images are protected under the Colorado Privacy Act, the whisperings of the brain are, too. Signed into law by Gov. Jared Polis, the bill had impressive bipartisan support, passing by a 34-to-0 vote in the state Senate and 61-to-1 in the House. I commend you, Colorado, bravo!

Here the bill if you are curious: https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2024A/bills/2024a_1058_ren.pdf

California is taking a similar approach. The state’s Senate Judiciary Committee passed a bill that brings brain data into the category of “sensitive personal information.” Next, the bill heads to the Appropriations Committee for consideration. Here the link: https://sd13.senate.ca.gov/news/press-release/april-16-2024/senate-committee-overwhelmingly-approves-landmark-neurorights-act

Europe is discussing the topic of neurotechnologies too, here the PDF, enjoy: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2024/757807/EPRS_STU(2024)757807_EN.pdf

But laws must be quick because with companies like Meta and Snapchat exploring neurotechnology, and Apple patenting a future version of AirPods that would scan your brain activity through your ears, we could soon live in a world where companies harvest our neural data just as 23andMe harvests our DNA data. These companies could conceivably build databases with tens of millions of brain scans, which can be used to find out if someone has a disease like epilepsy even when they don’t want that information disclosed and could one day be used to identify individuals against their will. 

Thanks to Neurorights Foundation I've also discovered that several consumer neurotech companies are gathering brain data — and perhaps selling it, according to a major report I link here: https://www.perseus-strategies.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/FINAL-Consumer-Neurotechnology-Report-Neurorights-Foundation-March-2024-3.pdf

Analyzing the privacy policies and user agreements of 30 companies, the report found that a majority could share neural data with third parties.

So if you’re worried about what might happen with your neural data and mental privacy, you need to be worried right now about that, Jared Genser, general counsel at the Neurorights Foundation, said. Because people are buying these devices all around the world.

And now we enter in the creepy, unsettling territory of neurotechnologies that touches one of the most important rights that is emerging in these decades: mental privacy or neural privacy.

Mental privacy and new rights

Remember Rafael Yuste? I mentioned him above in this article. He at his lab, employed a method called optogenetics, he found that he could manipulate the visual perception of mice by using a laser to activate specific neurons in the visual cortex of the brain. When he made certain images artificially appear in their brains, the mice behaved as though the images were real. Yuste discovered he could run them like puppets. I will leave you the article:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6747687/pdf/nihms-1049885.pdf

In 2017, Yuste gathered around 30 experts to meet at Columbia’s Morningside campus, where they spent days discussing the ethics of neurotech. As Yuste’s mouse experiments showed, it’s not just mental privacy that’s at stake; there’s also the risk of someone using neurotechnology to manipulate our minds. While some brain-computer interfaces only aim to “read” what’s happening in your brain, others also aim to “write” to the brain that is, to directly change what your neurons are up to.

In this article published at Nature, Yuste and his group introduced new human rights that emerged with the development of neurotechnology, here the article: https://www.nature.com/articles/551159a.pdf

But for the sake of brevity I will list them here too:

1. Mental privacy (the right to seclude one's brain data so that it's not stored or sold without your consent)
2. Personal identity (the right to be protected from alterations to one's sense of self and its perception that is not authorized by the person him/her/themselves)
3. Free will (the right to retain the ultimate control over one's decision making, without unknown manipulation from neurotechnologies)
4. Fair access to mental augmentation (the right to enjoy equality of access, so that neurotechnology doesn’t only benefit the rich)
5. Protection from bias (neurotechnology algorithms should be designed in ways that do not perpetuate bias against particular groups)

It's extremely vital to act not only to talk about it and Yuste did what it needs to do. He connected with Jared Genser, an international human rights lawyer who has represented clients like the Nobel Peace Prize laureates Desmond Tutu and Aung San Suu Kyi. Together, Yuste and Genser created the Neurorights Foundation to advocate for the cause.

This led to an immediate victory because in 2021, after Yuste helped craft a constitutional amendment with a close friend who happened to be a Chilean senator, Chile became the first nation to enshrine the right to mental privacy and the right to free will in its national constitution. Mexico, Brazil, and Uruguay are already considering something similar. 

Even the United Nations has started talking about neurotech: Secretary-General António Guterres gave it a shoutout in his 2021 report, “Our Common Agenda,” after meeting with Yuste. Let's see how it will evolve, I wish him all the best!

Now times are still too green especially now with all these shitty governments all around the world, but in future maybe, and I say maybe, a new global treaty might be established. If US federal law were to follow Colorado in recognizing neural data as sensitive health data (I doubt now with the current president and that other guy), that data would fall under the protection of HIPAA, which Yuste said would alleviate much of his concern. Another possibility would be to get all neurotech devices recognized as medical devices so they would have to be approved by the FDA.

I agree when Genser says "It’s about having options", if you give me options and freedom to chose what I want and what not (spoiler: I don't want these technologies in me, on me and around me where by around me I mean my house and my family) then I am more mentally inclined to tolerate them as long as there are strict law that act quickly and limit the misuse power of these technologies. Technology is not bad per se, it's how you use it that makes the difference.

Little gift

And now I want to leave you this useful tool to enhance your privacy online:

https://www.privacytools.io/

See you next time!

References and footnotes:

(1) Cook MJ, O'Brien TJ, Berkovic SF, Murphy M, Morokoff A, Fabinyi G, et al. (June 2013). "Prediction of seizure likelihood with a long-term, implanted seizure advisory system in patients with drug-resistant epilepsy: a first-in-man study". The Lancet. Neurology. 12 (6): 563–71. doi:10.1016/s1474-4422(13)70075-9. PMID 23642342. S2CID 33908839

(2) Val Danilov I (2024). “Child Cognitive Development with the Maternal Heartbeat: A Mother-Fetus Neurocognitive Model and Architecture for Bioengineering Systems.” In International Conference on Digital Age & Technological Advances for Sustainable Development (pp. 216-223). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-75329-9_24

(3) Val Danilov I. (2024). “The Origin of Natural Neurostimulation: A Narrative Review of Noninvasive Brain Stimulation Techniques”. OBM Neurobiology 2024; 8(4): 260; doi:10.21926/obm.neurobiol.2404260

(4) Ibidem

(5) https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2023/3/17/23638325/neurotechnology-ethics-neurofeedback-brain-stimulation-nita-farahany

(6) Bogaert, Anthony F.; Skorska, Malvina N. (March 2020). "A short review of biological research on the development of sexual orientation". Hormones and Behavior. 119: 104659. doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2019.104659. PMID 31911036. S2CID 21005529

(7) Lau, Holning (2018-08-01), "Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Discrimination", BRILL, pp. 1–52, doi:10.1163/9789004345492_002, ISBN 9789004345492, S2CID 240352057

(8) Ibidem

(9) https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7930173/

(10) Frigerio, Alberto; Ballerini, Lucia; Valdés Hernández, Maria (2021-05-06). "Structural, Functional, and Metabolic Brain Differences as a Function of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation: A Systematic Review of the Human Neuroimaging Literature". Archives of Sexual Behavior. 50 (8): 3329–3352. doi:10.1007/s10508-021-02005-9. ISSN 0004-0002. PMC 8604863. PMID 33956296

Hello everyone, here Shang with another artist promotion and this time I would like to promote an artist I met two months ago, I am referring to ChronoNG 

The thing that immediately catches the eye, looking at his works, is the very marked and well-defined outlines of the drawings especially if you take a look at most recent works where the image quality increased a lot compared to the first three drawings.

The artwork that made me fell in love with the style and made me understand the person has a lot of artistic potential is his first drawing:

I discovered this artwork in a forum thread about reviews requests, he asked some critique on poses. I took a look and I immediately liked it, I have yet to review it because I would like to give him some tips about more dynamic poses. A thing that I like a lot about his works is the accuracy with which he mimic the style of the character, for example works like these well show what I mean:

In the last one I particularly like how homogeneous the black colour is on antennae, there are no smears and I like how the right hand is coloured differently with a lighter pressure so that one can appreciate the volumetric shapes between the right hand and the left antenna. I also like the perspective between the two.

His works are mostly black and white but there are coloured works too such as:

I like the grainy effect of the coloured works and nice touch in the background of Charlotte (Original Character) with those alternations between yellow, blue, purple and pink because it gives a nice iridescent effect. His style is very reminiscent of chibi style and if on one hand he knows how to imitate the original style of the character he represents, on the other hand he also knows how to add a personalized touch in his other works such as:

He is a very fun person to hang around too, I admit I like when he comments my stuff even though no one is obliged to always comment my stuff (I had a nasty experience with a person on DA who demanded my friends and me to always comment her stuff whether it was blogs or artworks, and this mentally drained me on the long term), but it's nice to see your works are appreciated.

I think he deserves a much larger following base because of the adorable chibi-style and nice personality he has, so if you want to check him out, go and hit that button!

See you next time, bye!