- Debate over whether a fully engineered, autonomous self-replicating robot is currently feasible; maaku argues it is not, while docl claims our existing industrial ecosystem already constitutes a self-replicating system that merely “uses humans as a vitamin” until full automation is achieved.  
- kanzure suggests biological self-replicating probes as an interim path, linking a 2022 paper on engineered living materials (PubMed 36475966).  
- TMA distinguishes “making” self-replicators via breeding/husbandry from the harder task of rationally engineering them from scratch.  
- A review on vascularized and angiogenic organoids is shared (PMC9513648) as background for advanced tissue-engineering approaches.  
- Human tactile acuity is shown to resolve single-atom substitutions in surface monolayers (silane vs. amine vs. carbon; PubMed 33929468), and psychophysics experiments confirm direct detection of single photons by the human eye (Nature Comms 2016).  
- Discussion of Greg Egan’s short story “Chaff” introduces “White Knights,” hybrid neuron-leukocyte cells capable of forming temporary synapses, highlighting speculative bio-neural interfaces.  
- Historical context provided via a review of the Soviet fox domestication program, illustrating rapid behavioral and morphological selection (Evolution: Education & Outreach 2018).  
- Curiosity about multi-limbed octopus variants leads to a Japanese aquarium anecdote and a 1965 paper on “abnormal arm number” in octopuses (Proceedings of the Japan Academy 41(7):618).