- A late-night debate framed “luddite” as a precise label for people who insist human life must proceed exactly as it did before modern machines, distinct from other culture-war stances on abortion or gene editing.  
- Participants argued whether any ethical system can be non-arbitrary; one view held that all moral codes are ultimately arbitrary memeplexes shaped by survival constraints, while another countered that an empirical “ethical science” is possible but hampered by prohibitions on “unethical” experiments.  
- Heinlein’s model of ethics as nested survival (individual → group → species) was cited, alongside Asimov’s “Zeroth Law” idea that recognizing oneself as a parasite on a larger entity provides an ethical reference point.  
- Discussion of contemporary warfare claimed that 20th-century symmetry breaking has made traditional “war” obsolete; modern conflicts instead use child soldiers and targeted strikes, producing a “supercritical fluid of blood, mud, and disinformation.”  
- Foxconn’s complete replacement of a consumer-electronics assembly line with robots was offered as evidence that labor automation is still near the bottom of an S-curve but will accelerate faster than societies expect.  
- A link to an OZY article was shared describing the use of low-intensity focused ultrasound to stimulate thalamic neurons, reportedly restoring consciousness and language comprehension in a 25-year-old coma patient within three days.