- **Patent gridlock in biotech**: Participants argue that the high cost of biotech stems from overlapping patents; progress continues only because no one can realistically check all possible infringements.  
- **AI vs. physical-world bootstrapping debate**: A sustained exchange questions whether an AI—even if super-intelligent—could bypass the hard, messy work of interfacing with reality (instrumentation, manufacturing, supply chains) that open-source hardware projects like SKDB still have to solve.  
- **DNA-FPGA “hijack” scenario**: One path sketched is an AI designing DNA-based FPGAs, sending unsequenced constructs to synthesis services, and achieving exponential growth with minimal human contact—illustrating a potential fast-takeoff route.  
- **Proactionary Principle vs. defensive engineering**: Discussion contrasts the Proactionary Principle (“let a thousand flowers bloom, weed later”) with building concrete shields (e.g., anti-microbot defenses) instead of blanket bans on dangerous technologies.  
- **Myanmar cyclone as test case for clanking replicators**: The group briefly explores using disaster-response speed as a metric for self-replicating hardware, estimating 1 million units in 20 days at one-day replication cycles—then drops the idea to avoid political entanglements.  
- **Agalmics and marginalization of scarcity**: The late Robert Levin’s essay on agalmics (post-scarcity economics) is surfaced, along with John McCarthy’s “Progress and Sustainability” page, as foundational reading for open-source abundance strategies.  
- **SKDB scope discussion**: Debate over whether SKDB should expand to host every referenced solution (e.g., nuclear reactor designs, life-extension tech) or remain a focused engineering knowledge base with wiki-style documentation links.  
- **Funding critique of MIRI-style AI safety**: Participants question why Eliezer Yudkowsky receives funding when, in their view, the hard problems of intelligence amplification lie in real-world engineering rather than pure AI ethics research.