- Henry Markram’s 2008 TED talk on “designing the human mind” was circulated; participants noted his 2005 slide on a “biological refinement strategy” and the goal of “plug in biological data and get a brain out on the other side.”  
- A debate arose over whether proportional relationships between mechanical variables are sufficient for all machine design; genehacker pointed to logarithmic cams and disk integrators in fire-control systems as counter-examples, citing the 1944 U.S. Navy OP-1140 manual.  
- wrldpc_ asked for non-electrical computing paradigms; fenn listed photonic-crystal circuits built from silica microspheres, bubbles, quantum states, DNA, proteins, and referenced the Journal of Unconventional Computation; a paper on photonic-crystal defects was uploaded to adl.serveftp.org/papers/lipkowitz_photonic_crystal_defects.pdf.  
- kardan proposed creating an open-source-hardware “bank/foundation” to pool purchases and lower costs; fenn replied that oshwbank.org exists but is unproven, and noted that the RepRap Research Foundation had previously run group buys.  
- kanzure announced that Alcor’s CEO position is vacant and that a local church advocate who authored a children’s book on cryonics is being considered, prompting jokes about the previous CEO being “in storage.”  
- xp_prg sought images of Affymetrix SNP 6 chips and asked about mtDNA, indicating interest in genotyping hardware.  
- kanzure reported unlabeled data from an algae lab and asked for help interpreting it, highlighting the need for better data-handling practices in DIY biology.  
- A side discussion on employment strategies unfolded: xp_prg claimed ~100 applications yield one interview, advocated CS degrees, certifications, and even “dressing seductively,” while fenn expressed skepticism about the credentialist system.