- A new Science paper on “Highly Multiplexed Subcellular RNA Sequencing in Situ” (Lee et al., 2014) was highlighted as a potential route to high-resolution spatial transcriptomics in ~100 µm × 100 µm × 20 µm brain slices, prompting discussion of how much DNA is actually needed to reconstruct neuronal connectivity.  
- Participants debated the feasibility and value of sequencing thin tissue volumes versus single cells, with ParahSailin noting that meaningful data likely requires more DNA than one cell can provide.  
- The classic philosophical question “Is an uploaded mind conscious?” was reframed with the pithy analogy “Is simulated rain wet?” to illustrate the difference between functional simulation and phenomenal experience.  
- Links to two key papers on hardware trojans were shared: “Stealthy Dopant-Level Circuits” (Becker et al., 2013) and its follow-up on optical/ion-beam verification, underscoring the difficulty of detecting sub-visual, dopant-based backdoors in outsourced ASIC fabrication.  
- Community-college-scale 50–100 µm lithography was proposed as a trustable, optically verifiable path to open-source semiconductors; ThomasEgi estimated a Z80-class CPU (~10 cm² die) could be built at 100 µm, while kanzure suggested starting with <2 000-transistor designs.  
- Practical tooling for web-scraping automation was discussed: CasperJS for form-filling, Weinre for remote debugging, and phantomjsify for bundling Node modules into PhantomJS scripts.  
- Bitcoin-related links included Ken Shirriff’s demonstration of mining at 0.67 hashes per day with pencil and paper, a die-shot of Bitfury’s dedicated ASIC, and Peter Todd’s “timelock” scheme that uses Bitcoin bounties to incentivize cracking time-lock puzzles.  
- The Shapeoko and other low-cost CNC/3-D-printer Kickstarter campaigns were dismissed as mostly wood-working toys; an Okuma 5-axis VMC (≈ $500 k) was offered tongue-in-cheek as a “real” alternative.  
- A brief exchange on secure computing concluded that pervasive paranoia would probably push users to abandon computers before they undertook homebrew ASIC projects, absent clear incentives or scalable community fabs.