- The channel debated whether breeding brain parasites could be a faster route to cognitive enhancement than synthesizing custom chemical nootropics, with kanzure suggesting it might be more time-efficient.  
- Cordyceps was cited as a functional “brain parasite” that had noticeable cognitive effects for at least one participant (fenn), and its recoverable end-stage behavior was highlighted as useful for iterative selection and reuse.  
- A side discussion explored the logistics of RFID-tagging individual ant drones for tracking, jokingly proposing either miniaturized tags or breeding larger ants to carry standard RFID chips.  
- A detailed, multi-message primer on Bitcoin’s proof-of-work mechanism was provided, covering SHA-256 hashing, dynamic difficulty retargeting every 2016 blocks, and why the network rejects low-difficulty blocks.  
- Participants examined the economics of Bitcoin ASIC mining, noting that ASIC vendors likely captured the most value (akin to “pick-and-shovel sellers”) and that cumulative network hash power now makes solo 10–100× speed advantages practically impossible.  
- Links shared included the MicroPython pull request adding ESP8266 Wi-Fi socket support (github.com/micropython/micropython/pull/1211) and historical charts of Bitcoin network hash-rate growth (bitcoin.sipa.be/speed-ever.png).