• Open Source Ecology’s Global Village Construction Set (GVCS) was proposed as a flagship use-case for the SKDB open-source hardware-design platform, with a call to persuade Marcin Jakubowski to migrate GVCS documentation and CAD workflows into SKDB.

• A practical DIY protocol for producing electrophoresis-grade agarose from grocery-store agar-agar was outlined, involving boiling, electrophoresis to remove agaropectin, and optional acetone precipitation, supported by links to the FGSC agar-washing protocol and a 2009 diybio discussion thread.

• Zyvex was identified as the only publicly visible company still pursuing mechanosynthesis, although its current product line is limited to nanomanipulators; participants debated Jim Von Ehr’s 2020 forecast for rudimentary molecular manufacturing and noted Zyvex’s semiconductor-metrology division (now DCG Systems) is relocating to Austin by June 2012.

• A near-term path to 10 nm-scale manufacturing by 2020 was claimed via ultra-precise inkjet printing (current lab system achieves 500 nm–2 µm features on a $70 k setup), argued to be a stepping-stone toward eventual molecular manufacturing.

• CarbonCopies.org was revisited as a potential collaboration hub for BCI and neural-interface work, with direct outreach initiated to Randal Koene, while participants weighed the site’s rationality against typical “uploading” rhetoric.

• A comprehensive debate on mind uploading covered destructive vs. non-destructive scanning, critiques of pattern-identity theory, continuity-of-consciousness objections, possible social/legal pressure to euthanize originals, and the utility of spawning modified copies for experimentation or productivity.

• The 2009 “Whole Brain Emulation: A Roadmap” report was circulated as a key technical reference, alongside discussion of existing 302-neuron nematode simulations as proof-of-concept for scaling brain emulation.

• The U.S. Navy’s electromagnetic railgun program was clarified as still active under the Office of Naval Research (contact: Roger Ellis, roger.ellis@navy.mil, +1-703-696-9504), correcting rumors of cancellation and sparking debate over the ethics and strategic value of military R&D.

• Participants speculated that even post-human computronium civilizations might engage in warfare when perfect prediction fails, suggesting conflict could persist at any level of intelligence.

• Deus Ex: Human Revolution was praised for explicitly referencing mechanosynthesis, illustrating how mainstream games can popularize transhumanist concepts.