• Two CRISPR-based “cellular tape-recorders” were spotlighted: MEMOIR (Nature 2017) uses bar-coded scratchpads and CRISPR/Cas9 mutagenesis followed by multiplexed smFISH to reconstruct lineage and event histories in situ, while mSCRIBE (Science 2016) employs self-targeting guide RNAs to accumulate mutations at a single locus, enabling human cells to continuously log the intensity and duration of molecular stimuli.

• The X27 “Reconnaissance Day/Night” camera (ISO-equivalent ≈5 million) was discussed as a potential ultra-low-light sensor for DNA-sequencing instruments that rely on detecting faint fluorescence from labeled nucleotides.

• A Cell paper showing that cephalopods extensively recode their own RNA transcripts was circulated, highlighting a natural analog to the engineered genomic memory systems above.

• Reverse-engineering efforts were reviewed, including the open-source driver emokit for the Emotiv EPOC EEG headset and ongoing work on an optically/electrically controlled polymerase for DNA synthesis that may receive DARPA-BTO funding.

• Participants debated the practicality of automated theorem provers (Coq, Z3, Prover9, HOL Light) for solving Olympiad-style functional equations, concluding that current tools lack the automation needed for non-trivial problems.

• Curated paper collections on gene therapy, longevity, neurotech, and DIYbio are available at diyhpl.us/~bryan/papers2/, and the slide deck “2017-02-03-beacon.pdf” summarizes open biotech projects.

• The HGP-Write 2017 conference agenda (engineeringbiologycenter.org/2017-agenda/) was critiqued for being overly dominated by “defensive” ethics and politics rather than technical substance, with only ~10 minutes allocated to DNA Script’s enzymatic DNA synthesis platform (dnascript.co).

• Recent CRISPR advances shared include “Targeted activation of diverse CRISPR-Cas systems for mammalian genome editing via proximal CRISPR targeting” (Nature Comms 14958) and a marker-free co-selection strategy for high-efficiency human genome engineering (bioRxiv 116251).

• Transparent-human-embryo.com hosts interactive 3-D visualizations of early human development, linked to the Cell paper “Transdimensional visualization and analysis of early human development.”