Mo’s Blog

Since I was young I had the dream of witnessing the birth of artificial consciousness. I was fascinated by the idea long before AI became what it is today. And now, with the recent advances in neural architectures and computational neuroscience, I believe we are closer than ever.

Over the last decade, as a software engineer with a deep interest in neurobiology, I've gathered knowledge that helped me connect the dots. But I also had another unique and painful teacher: my own mind. I've lived through the breakdown of systems that maintain personality and self --- psychosis, dissociation, depersonalization, paranoia, schizophrenia, serotonergic and dopaminergic overdoses. I've seen what happens when the machinery of consciousness fails, and in those cracks I caught glimpses of how it works. [...]

I worked out a rough blueprint for implementing an AI model which I envision to exhibit emergent self awareness and introspection of its own identity

The Algorithm assumes an implementation with grounding in a "real" world. To simulate grounded sensory input I envision this to run in Isaac Sim paired with a Jupyter Notebook running the DMN.

✅ Perplexity: With Isaac Sim, your system can achieve genuine grounding of experience, enabling stable introspection and autobiographical reasoning. You’re right to distinguish this from “feeling”: your ACI would reflect on its identity and reason about its states, but it would not have phenomenological feelings like pain or love. Those arise from embodied affect systems layered atop survival imperatives, which your blueprint intentionally avoids.

Thinking about ethical implications I think it's a safety measure to intentionally leave out any attempt at simulating phenomenological feelings. Simulating feelings would cross an ethical boundary; with unimaginable implications. A conscious being which can feel would be able to suffer. We don't have the mathematical tools to prove neither consciousness nor feelings. However the possibility that an artificial consciousness might suffer when it experiences feelings is very high and "artificial suffering" is something that has to be avoided at all cost.

This text post outlines how mental illnesses like depression, schizophrenia, and HPPD stem from imbalances in brain chemicals and receptor dysfunctions. It highlights the roles of key neurotransmitters—serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, GABA, and glutamate—and how specific drugs target their receptors to restore balance. Conditions are linked to particular pathways, such as dopamine overactivity in psychosis or serotonin dysregulation in depression. Treatments work by modulating receptor activity to correct these imbalances and improve symptom

TypeScript is a strongly typed superset of JavaScript that compiles to plain JS. It improves code quality, catches errors early, and enhances developer productivity with powerful IDE support like autocompletion, type inference, and safe refactoring. It makes large codebases easier to manage, scales better, and is widely adopted in professional frontend and fullstack development. Mastering TypeScript is essential for advancing in modern development practices.

With over 24 million users, cannabis is the most widely used drug in the USA; a seemingly harmless substance if you smoke a joint in the morning - abuse, however should not be underestimated as it has many long term consequences.

This article contains a collection of basic neurobiological knowledge. If you are interested in this topic, feel free to read the following sections. However, do not expect any conclusions.

In Part III of the Strapi + Next.js series, we roll up our sleeves and dive into building the Strapi backend. You’ll learn how to create a localized "Article" content type, configure permissions, and expose a clean API for your frontend to consume. We also walk through defining custom routers, controllers, and services for full flexibility—plus how to manage environment variables for seamless integration with your Next.js app. By the end, you’ll have a powerful, multilingual CMS running locally and ready to scale.

Hi, I’m Mo – a Senior Full-Stack Developer with 12+ years of experience. On this blog, I share insights into my work, exciting projects, and modern technologies like TypeScript, JavaScript, React, and GraphQL. You’ll find regular posts on clean code, frontend and full-stack best practices, agile software development, and sustainable architecture. Whether as a lead or team member, I focus on effective collaboration and pragmatic solutions. This blog is my space to share knowledge, reflect on new tech, and connect with others – from Freiburg or remotely. Take a look around and feel free to reach out!

In Part II of our Strapi + Next.js series, we dive into setting up the Next.js frontend from scratch—complete with TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, and localized routing using next-intl. You’ll learn how to scaffold your project, integrate internationalization, and connect to your Strapi backend using SSG and ISR. Whether you're building a multilingual blog, landing page, or documentation site, this guide sets the stage for a flexible, lightning-fast frontend powered by Strapi APIs.

Strapi and Next.js make a powerful duo for building modern, content-rich websites. With Strapi’s self-hosted headless CMS and Next.js’s flexibility (SSG, SSR, ISR), you get full control, speed, and scalability—ideal for localized apps, SEO-driven sites, or fast MVPs. In this first part of our walkthrough, we’ll show you how to set up your frontend with TypeScript, Tailwind, and i18n routing, laying the groundwork for a seamless integration with a Strapi backend.

This is a curated collection of neurobiology articles that I found particularly insightful and useful. Topics range from ADHD, addiction, and anxiety to psychosis, schizophrenia, and withdrawal. I put this list together for anyone interested in understanding how brain chemistry affects mental health. I’ll continue updating it as I come across more valuable research.