In this presentation Meron Gribetz, CEO of Meta, introduces "neurohumanism," a philosophy and three‑step algorithm for creating user interfaces that are as intuitive as possible by directly engaging the human nervous system. He argues that the brain is the most powerful computer and that designing interfaces that align with its functional architecture yields technology that anyone—regardless of age or expertise—can use instantly. The talk outlines the three steps: (1) understand the specific brain region(s) an application will engage (e.g., visual cortex for video streaming), (2) build technology that works closely with that neural circuitry, and (3) create a brain‑extension that augments the user’s capabilities. Gribetz emphasizes “high‑throughput” design, meaning minimal cognitive load and simultaneous activation of multiple brain systems (visual, tactile, motor, attention, etc.). He contrasts this approach with conventional VR (e.g., Oculus Rift), which isolates the user from the peripheral nervous system, and demonstrates how Meta’s AR hardware engages both central and peripheral nerves through holographic, tactile feedback. The presentation provides a concise overview of key brain areas (prefrontal, occipital, medial temporal, parietal) that designers should consider, and positions neurohumanism as relevant not only to AR/VR but also to broader HCI, AI, intelligence amplification, and future brain‑computer interfaces.
Chapters
All right. So, we build augmented reality, but we build it with a different flavor of sort of design in mind. We really care about the human nervous system, and we're actually building a computer for the human nervous system. Sounds a little strange. A lot of our user interface design is based on my background in neuroscience. We're making sure that the computers that we build today are going to be so freaking intuitive and easy to use that anyone at any Any age, any time, can use them. That's how we engage with the brain, but that's not enough. You have things like the Oculus Rift that you can plug into and they'll simulate a reality and they'll engage lots of parts of your brain and create what they call presence, but they'll disconnect you from your peripheral nervous system, the rest of your body. So, that's not something we're interested in, and we're building interfaces that actually also engage the body. So, let's get into that. This is, this is what we built. The guy that built the user interface The guy who did the user interfaces for Iron Man 1 and 3 is building the UI for Meta. So, you're going to see a lot of stuff that looks like this. And you'll note that, you know, there's actual engagement with the peripheral nervous system, with your neurons on your fingers and the holographic material. And, you know, we're treating holographic material as it is physical material. So, it's very easy to use this kind of technology. But what is neurohumanism? Neurohumanism is the philosophy underlying everything. So, this is our bombastic catchphrase. All right. Let's get into it. Good. So, that's one of my favorite quotes. Neurohumanism. What is neurohumanism? It's relevant to all of you guys or anyone who's trying to build new technologies. The idea that we're going to understand the principles of the human mind, interface with the human mind very seamlessly, and it's basically an algorithm for developing the most intuitive interfaces in the world. All right? So it's an algorithm that is only 3 steps, and once you internalize these 3 guys, you can build interfaces the way Steve Jobs would build them. and the way Elon Musk would build them, I saw in the entrance, and this is the underlying secret, in my opinion. So first step is deceivingly sort of, it sounds complex, but it's not really. It's try and understand the brain. Try and understand the part of the brain that your user interface is going to engage with, okay? So if you're building an application that is streaming video, so this is engaging the visual system. This is engaging. I'm doing all sorts of things with my visual system as I'm processing the information. And once you understand that part of the brain sufficiently, you'll know what interface to build. So only then you build the tech that works as closely as possible with your understanding of the brain. And third, you're going to actually create a brain extension with your app. OK. So, neurohumanism, you'll see that there's humanity inside of the word. We care about building technology for humans. And the way that we engage with— between the computer and the human is via our neurons. And all of our user interface design, all of the things I'm going to be talking about are how to engage Your mind via your nervous system and build these really intuitive interfaces. But why are we focusing on humans? Why is— clearly, there's going to be stronger computers than the human brain at some point in the near future. And we've chose to really emphasize making human beings essentially super intelligent. And why is that interesting? For a couple of reasons. Number one, as of today, the human brain is the most powerful computer in the world. So, that's kind of undisputed. And so, if we learn from the human mind for the development of our interfaces and our technologies in general, we're going to actually be building more powerful technology. That's a simple one. And the other one is broad reach. The minute you build a neurohumanistic user interface or application or piece of hardware technology, you can put it on a 90-year-old grandmother Or a 2-year-old child or a tech geek, and they're all going to know how to use it immediately. And so that's really the second part. So we're not— this isn't a moral philosophy about why humans are superior in any way, shape, or form. It's just telling you that this is a good way to learn to build interfaces. So what are the kinds of technologies that this is going to be relevant to? On the one hand, you have augmented reality, which is my company, virtual reality, which is Oculus Rift and similar, and human-computer interfaces, which is anyone who's building an app ever, okay? That's the first sort of group of technologies that neurohumanism is really going to disrupt in the coming years. And the second group, which is much deeper and much longer term, is artificial intelligence, intelligence amplification, Brain-computer interfaces, which is actually in the longer term, I'll tell you a secret, where Meta is going. Okay. Good. So, at the core, at the heart of neurohumanism, there's this phrase right here. We seek to build interfaces that engage with many parts of the brain with really high throughput. What does this mean? This means that, for example, When I'm building an app that engages the visual system, it should ideally also engage the tactile system. So your visual system is your occipital cortex and your tactile system is your somatosensory cortex. And there are many other parts of the brain that you're going to strive to engage with. The more the merrier, pretty much. And that's how you're going to design your interface. And we'll make it a little bit more tangible in a moment. High throughput. What does high throughput mean? It means that your brain shouldn't be spending too many extra cycles trying to understand or memorize the steps. You shouldn't cognitively overload it. You should have minimal number of steps to achieve a given task, and they should be as intuitive as possible. All right? That's what high throughput means in this context. This has a bit of a delay. Go back. So, this is not a neurohumanistic interface. Why? Why? Because neurohumanism is the science of intuitive interface and tech design. As simple as that. That's why we should strive to build interfaces that engage many parts of the brain in high throughput. All right. So, let's go dive into the human nervous system very quickly. Basically, in high level, just so we all have an understanding of what the heck we're talking about here. It's divided into 2, your central nervous system, your brain, which has about 10 different areas that you as entrepreneurs should really know about. Not more than that. You don't have to go into infinite depth. And that won't be the focus of our presentation today, but— It will. I'm sorry. It will be the focus of our presentation today. And then there's also the peripheral nervous system. which is all of these purple wires that you see in the body. This is neurons that are connected via the spinal cord out into the various regions of your body, and they will help you, for example, if I'm looking at a hologram like Iron Man and I want to grab it, right, I'm going to clench it. It's my motor system that's sending an impulse out to my peripheral nervous system to move, and then, and so my various muscles are shrinking and moving along, and then it's my— Sensory system. It's my peripheral nerves on my fingers that are going to make the tactile feedback that I've actually clasped something, and only then is the hologram triggered to move. So, you see how from the somatosensory or premotor cortex of the mind, which is up here in your parietal cortex, okay, you're sending a nerve, a series of pulses out to your peripheral nervous system, and you're performing an action. And that's a full kind of flow. And so that's your peripheral nervous system versus your central nervous system, which is essentially your brain. Let's go deeper into the brain. All right. So, what are the parts of the brain that we should all know of if we're going to design super, super intuitive interfaces? The first is your prefrontal cortex. This is the area that really does the decision-making. This is the CEO of the brain. This is the one sending, and organizing, and orchestrating all of this party in the back, okay? This part here is your occipital cortex, it's your visual system. So, from your retina, these action potentials are going through the center, the, the medial lobes, out into the occipital, and as you process visual information, it goes deeper and deeper in the mind. The place where you recognize objects is roughly over here, in your medial temporal cortex, which is where you do sound as well. And the place where you see motion is going to be over up there in your parietal cortex. Your parietal cortex is also the thing that modulates attention. And attention is super important for building interfaces. So if you have all of these parts of the mind in your head when you're designing your interfaces, they're going to be spot on. And if you miss one or two of them, they're not. And there's this kind of neurohumanism checklist which we'll send out later for when you want to design your interfaces to make sure that it's something that, you know, maybe Steve Jobs would have been happy with.
