- A discussion of the Fermi paradox framed black holes as “quiet M-brains”: post-biological civilizations that retreat into high-density computation where the value of internal computation exceeds any incentive to communicate with external spacetime.  
- Seth Lloyd’s “ultimate laptop” paper (arXiv:quant-ph/9908043) was cited as the canonical analysis of computing at the Bekenstein bound, with the caveat that such machines would run “hot” and therefore be observationally conspicuous.  
- A second paper, “Closed Timelike Curves Make Quantum and Classical Computing Equivalent” (arXiv:0808.2669), was shared as an example of how exotic spacetime topologies could collapse complexity-class distinctions.  
- Participants debated the meaning of “representational power” after the claim that deep neural networks now “rival the primate IT cortex.” Analogies were drawn to programming-language expressiveness (e.g., C++ vs. Brainfuck) and to neural-network capacity metrics such as Hopfield-net pattern storage.  
- It was argued that many “hard” problems are hard only for biological wetware; non-biological substrates could be far more efficient at analytical reasoning once freed from evolutionary constraints.  
- A 2014 arXiv paper (1406.3284) was highlighted for showing that deep convolutional networks achieve representational equivalence to the primate ventral stream for core object recognition, suggesting that high-level vision may be algorithmically simple.  
- SLAC research on µ-opioid receptor structure (linked via nmz787_i) was noted as a step toward painkillers with reduced side effects, illustrating practical molecular-biology advances adjacent to transhumanist health goals.  
- The channel’s paperbot was successfully used to retrieve a paywalled Biological Psychiatry article, demonstrating continued infrastructure for open-access literature sharing.