- The White House released a public policy post titled “Preparing for the Future of Artificial Intelligence” (whitehouse.gov, May 3 2016), sparking discussion on the channel.  
- maaku and FourFire debated the AI-control problem, with maaku framing it as “perfect enslavement devices” and proposing a 30-year roadmap to human-to-machine transition via reversible brain–computer fissioning: reverse-engineer intracranial signaling, replace one hemisphere with a learnable cortical simulation, then let the biological half die once the digital twin is fully trained.  
- FourFire countered that biological enhancement is the necessary “first bridge” for anyone born before ~2030 and estimated full-fidelity bio-to-digital migration at 50+ years; both agreed on hedging with multiple approaches.  
- Discussion of open-source biology: juul posted a call for a UI/UX designer for the BioBricks Foundation (job link on the Noisebridge mailing list, contact bbf@juul.io).  
- chris_99 and nmz787_i explored building an inexpensive digital refractometer; they concluded that a narrow-band laser (any stable wavelength) could replace costly 589 nm sodium-line interference filters, with red diodes likely offering better thermal stability than frequency-doubled green ones.  
- maaku asked whether current wearables (Fitbit, smartwatch optical heart-rate sensors) have sufficient resolution and sampling frequency to detect early heart-attack signatures in the micro-structure of pulse waveforms; drethelin cited a news story of a teen whose Fitbit already helped diagnose a cardiac emergency.