- Ralph Merkle’s 1990 paper “Two Types of Mechanical Reversible Logic” was revisited to argue that any majority-rule device—relays, neon tubes, pneumatic valves—can implement universal combinational logic, with RAM speed, not combinational elements, historically limiting non-transistor computers; modern 60 kHz reed relays with capacitive snubbing were cited as practical, high-speed, non-semiconductor switches.

- Participants explored microfluidic “bubble logic,” fluidic amplifiers, and rubber-based control circuits as low-cost, printable alternatives to electronics for future RepRap machines, speculating that stepper-motor shortages could revive fluidic motors and servo loops.

- A rich set of open-source ultrasound resources was catalogued: TI’s 461 MB MIDAS package (BSD-licensed DSP code for medical ultrasound on multicore TI chips), the PLUS library with OpenIGTLink support, and GitHub projects for research-grade ultrasound hardware and software.

- A consumer-grade VR haptics concept was outlined: a glovebox lined with phased-array ultrasound transducers that tracks hand pose and delivers kilohertz-rate force feedback via focused acoustic radiation pressure, potentially replacing bulky mechanical haptics; MIMO “dirty-paper coding” was proposed to separate overlapping echoes and boost image resolution.

- Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation (GVS) was highlighted as a simple, non-invasive way to hack the vestibular sense of gravity and balance, with historical commercial attempts (VM3, 1998) and new DIY experiments discussed.

- Automated mechanical design was explored through RTL-to-cam synthesis: leveraging existing FPGA toolchains to generate cam-based mechanical logic directly from Verilog/VHDL, reviving interest in programmable automata.

- A pre-print demonstrated functional recovery in rats whose transected sciatic nerves were reconnected with a biocompatible liquid-metal (eutectic gallium-indium) conduit, pointing toward soft-material neural interfaces.

- Microsoft Research’s “Type–Hover–Swipe” keyboard prototype was noted for embedding 96-byte firmware and infrared proximity sensors between every mechanical key to enable rich gesture recognition without extra hardware.

- Debate over Drexlerian rigid-body nanomachines versus soft-material or software-driven alternatives referenced the open NanoEngineer CAD part library and Freitas process notes, underscoring ongoing uncertainty about the best path to molecular manufacturing.

- kanzure reiterated frustration at the absence of a comprehensive 50 TB open-access scientific paper archive; jrayhawk noted that Library Genesis is already “at least” 30 TB, highlighting the gap between current open-access efforts and the ideal universal scientific corpus.