- Nick Bostrom privately updated existential-risk estimates to 12 % before 2100 and 50 % before 2500, and noted that a new Whole-Brain-Emulation roadmap is stalled; Randall Koene (carboncopies.org) is trying to restart the effort.  
- Hiroshi Ishiguro, the humanoid-robotics researcher, was described as an explicit transhumanist who openly advocates replacing humanity with engineered successors.  
- The star KIC 8462852’s 20 % irregular flux dips were discussed as a possible alien-megastructure signal, but participants concluded the infrared data do not match a Dyson swarm.  
- A Church lab 2014 review paper on “Large-scale de novo DNA synthesis: technologies and applications” was circulated as a primer on current DNA-synthesis and assembly strategies, and Sri Kosuri (inkjet DNA-synthesizer HN post) was invited to collaborate on prototype hardware.  
- Participants debated creating a “cryonics-adapted” animal via selective breeding, arguing that even short-lived, sick cryo-tolerant organisms would be valuable research subjects.  
- The 64-generation “angry rat” selection experiment was cited as a model for long-term breeding programs, with proposals for analogous projects targeting rat intelligence, language-like chirping, and maze-coordination abilities.  
- Discussion referenced human hydrocephaly cases with 10 % normal brain volume and IQ ≈ 75 to question minimal brain requirements for cognition, and floated an experiment selecting animals that retain cognitive performance after large, quasi-random brain-tissue removal.  
- Urban raccoons and foxes were proposed as candidates for deliberate domestication and cognitive enhancement, contrasting the Russian farm-fox study’s focus on tameness with a new program selecting for intelligence and dexterous manipulation.