- The RepRap community is wrestling with the paradox that open-source hardware still requires proprietary, $4,000 CAD software to read its “open” files, underscoring the need for fully open file formats and free design tools.  
- STL meshes are criticized as lossy “compiled code,” whereas STEP files can retain parametric design intent; an in-progress open-source STEP exporter that already exports a sphere could eventually add parametric constraints, potentially solving open-hardware interchange.  
- A roadmap for self-study in mechanical engineering toward nanomachine design was outlined, centering on MIT’s “FUNdaMENTALs of Design” notes and the Cornell KMODDL kinematics library.  
- Energy-budget analysis suggests diamondoid nanofactories (~140 kWh/kg) could undercut today’s silicon-chip fabrication (~2,130 kWh/kg), while nanoscale scaling laws predict GHz mechanical operation without overheating due to phonon-mediated friction and free bond rotation.  
- Participants view mechanical nanocomputers (rod logic) as proofs-of-concept only; single-electron and molecular electronic gates are favored for control systems, and the main bottleneck to diamondoid manufacturing is deemed a shortage of trained researchers rather than funding.  
- Two reversible DNA-polymerase concepts are under discussion: an electrically gated enzyme tethered via streptavidin/biotin for multiplexed circuit control, and a laser-triggered system using chromophore-tagged “retarded” polymerases evolved through compartmentalized self-replication.  
- Merkle & Freitas’ molecular toolset paper is cited as a viable bootstrapping route if its proposed tool molecules can first be synthesized conventionally; state-of-the-art DNA synthesis now favors DMD-based photochemical arrays over legacy phosphoramidite chemistry.  
- Open-source hardware frustrations include the OpenPCR project’s failure to maintain a proper design repository after crowdsourcing contributions, and ongoing EMC2 CNC control struggles with 5i23 FPGA daughterboards and motherboard compatibility.  
- A new engineering venture plans to aggregate CNC and 3-D-printing capacity for consulting and products, starting with 3-D-printed PLA seed-pod giveaways for Burning Man.  
- An archival effort is digitizing 1980s–1990s Extropy Institute papers from Max & Natasha Vita-More’s personal archives, debating scanning versus re-typing to preserve original typography.