- Evolutionary definition of “success” framed as simple persistence: Taek argues that merely existing today is proof of evolutionary success, while aging/death may be an evolved maintenance strategy that is “cheaper” than sustaining an individual indefinitely (TMA: “create new gene-carrying vehicles and let the old one die”).  
- Debate on societal vs. individual costs of aging: kanzure counters that advanced aging imposes extreme healthcare and social burdens, questioning who actually benefits from programmed death.  
- Google’s Tensor-Processing Unit (TPU) neural-network ASIC discussed; participants note surprise that Nvidia did not ship such a chip first and that Google is not offering it commercially.  
- Analog and reconfigurable hardware for neural computation explored: links shared to Adrian Thompson’s 1996 FPGA evolution experiment that exploited analog circuit effects, Carver Mead’s “Analog VLSI and Neural Systems,” and the 1-million-neuron, <2 W Neurogrid board.  
- FPAA (Field-Programmable Analog Array) scarcity lamented—only Anadigm and Okika produce them—while evolutionary algorithms on FPGAs that break digital abstractions are cited as under-utilized.  
- CRISPR-based targeted epigenome editing highlighted: three fresh papers on dCas9 fused to DNMT3A/TET1 for methylation remodeling, direct fibroblast-to-neuron conversion, and high-resolution interrogation of non-coding regulatory elements.  
- ImplicitCAD open-source solid-modeling project noted to have migrated to a private kallithea instance (kalli1.faikvm.com/ImplicitCAD/Stable) for continued development.