Field Journal #018: Building the Moat Around the Castle
From the QIF Field Journal
Date: 2026-02-21 ~01:30 State: Reorganizing the GitHub org, thinking about what comes next Mood: Clarity, restless curiosity
Today’s been about building the moat around the castle. I think the castle will start off as a brain-firewall that’s non-intrusive. It’ll allow me to see the scope I’m working with to see how feasible it is to do with very little overhead that BCIs are limited to on-device, especially with the small surface areas we defined in the BCI-limits. That was my initial intention when compiling BCI surface areas and physical/hardware and power constraints.
Also, for those who just have 100 things in your mind at once, I’m trying to make a mind journal that fits our weird mind. I think it’ll be helpful in a culmination of ways to align the popcorn that’s always being made. That’s a side project, I’m calling it Firefly as it helps light up my mind by trying to better understand and see the way to the finish line.
I had this idea for a while as I feel it’s super helpful for children, or my cousin who’s a teacher that works with those with special needs, and neurodivergent thinkers that are always making popcorn. The popcorn is useless if you can’t collect them in a bowl.
Nonetheless, BCI firewall is something I was avoiding but I think it’s inevitable and my curiosity just keeps steering here. It’s the most logical path. I wonder if it’s something that can connect directly to the chips of OpenBCI, kind of like how you need to ground the chips already to the ear. My vision is that we can ground the chips WHILE having something around the neck like the old style headphones that wrap around the neck.
I haven’t fully planned this out yet, it’s just a thought that came to mind as I was typing this. We’ll see which direction this turns to as I research the hardware and software feasibility while ensuring NSP and Runemate integration at scale. That’d be great, have PQC built in.
Connected to: BCI Limits Equation (Entry 016/017), brain-firewall architecture, NSP, Runemate, OpenBCI hardware
This entry is part of the QIF Field Journal, a living, append-only research journal documenting first-person observations at the intersection of neurosecurity, BCI engineering, and neurorights. The journal exists because neural privacy is a right, not a feature. Tools like macshield protect digital identity on networks; this research works toward protecting cognitive identity at the neural interface.
Written with AI assistance (Claude). All claims verified by the author.