- Debate over why no universal package manager has emerged: L29Ah argues conflicting requirements (ease-of-use, customizability, sandboxing, language awareness, resource limits) prevent convergence; kanzure suggests external graph-search tools could suffice, while L29Ah favors Portage today and Guix for the next 5 years.

- SpaceX-level autonomous robot factories: lsneff reports several off-SpaceX groups are working on them but are “not particularly far,” citing current ML limitations in designing general-purpose assembly systems; muurkha references historical efforts such as Mechadense’s “gem-gum” concept and Seed Factories.

- Michael Levin’s “synthetic morphology” framework: emphasizes surgical/embryonic cell placement over pure genetic engineering to achieve reliable body-plan outcomes; proposes using well-characterized, possibly genome-divergent cell lines and optogenetic patterning during development to bypass hard genotype-phenotype mapping problems.

- Xenobots and Computer-Designed Organisms (CDOs): open-source toolchain (voxcraft-viz, reconfigurable_organisms repo) lets users manually place every amphibian cell to create living machines; discussion explores scaling to vascularized tissues and whether embryonic pick-and-place could build alternative cortical architectures.

- Memory persistence across metamorphosis: paper “The stability of memories during brain remodeling” suggests memories can survive drastic neural rewiring, raising prospects for engineered cognitive continuity in regenerating or radically modified brains.

- Third-eye induction in frogs: microinjection of ion-channel mRNA can ectopically trigger complete eye formation, demonstrating that bioelectric patterns alone can override default anatomy.

- Planarian head-shape reprogramming: transient gap-junction blockade in Girardia dorotocephala stochastically regenerates heads matching other planarian species, indicating physiological networks—not just genetics—control species-specific morphology.

- Algae-based brain oxygenation: transcardially injected microalgae or cyanobacteria in Xenopus brain vessels produce O₂ under light, rescuing neural activity after hypoxia—described as “proper mad science.”

- 3-D printing and organoid strategies: current organ printing relies on scaffolds and precursor differentiation; participants consider printing neural-tube segments with altered diameter or layering neural stem cells to create non-standard neocortical geometries.

- Historical human–chimp hybridization attempts: kanzure recounts 1920s Soviet and 1960s Chinese experiments, plus 1980s Chinese plans to resume such work, questioning scientific rationale and ethical context.