- Anders Sandberg’s 1999 paper “The Physics of Information Processing Superobjects: Brains, Cities, and Civilizations” (http://www.jetpress.org/volume5/Brains2.pdf) was circulated as a key reference on the thermodynamic and engineering limits of building planet-scale or moon-scale “brains.”  
- A link to David Zindell’s novel “Neverness” (http://heybryan.org/docs/Zindell,%20David%20-%20Neverness%20(v1.0).txt) was shared as additional science-fiction background on post-human computation and large-scale minds.  
- Discussion of open human-genome databases: 1000 Genomes Project (raw sequences on S3 and NCBI) and the Personal Genome Project (genomes plus medical/physical phenotypes) were highlighted as primary public resources.  
- Participants debated how much functional knowledge exists for specific DNA sequences—some variants have experimentally verified molecular mechanisms, while most trait associations remain statistical correlations from GWAS/SNP studies.  
- A practical question was raised about whether non-institutional (“basement”) biohackers could pursue gene-therapy cures for cystic fibrosis; consensus was that the same safety hurdles (animal testing, delivery vectors, efficacy) apply regardless of regulatory compliance.  
- An off-hand proposal to deploy camera drones over developing-world marketplaces to quantify informal cash-transaction volumes was floated as a data-gathering experiment for economic modeling.  
- A hallway photo of a poster reading “Can I make my cat glow?” prompted jokes about the perennial interest in DIY GFP or luciferase pet modifications, underscoring the channel’s running theme of accessible genetic engineering projects.