- Rooftop-solar economics were dissected: a typical U.S. install is ~$20 k, of which only 45 % is the panels; the remaining 55 % covers inverters, wiring, labor, profit, and supply-chain mark-ups, making residential PV a poor ROI compared with index funds and an implicit subsidy to installers rather than clean-energy production.  
- Participants questioned the “recycling crisis” narrative for end-of-life PV modules, estimating the entire global waste stream through 2050 as ~117 Mt—roughly a 440-m-diameter sphere of mostly inert glass, aluminum, and silicon—and argued that trace lead (≈12 g per module in solder) is already being phased out under RoHS exemptions and is environmentally negligible.  
- A Nature paper was cited claiming that standard 20 %-efficient silicon panels effectively raise local albedo by 0.08 relative to bare ground because they convert sunlight to electricity that is ultimately exported and dissipated elsewhere, though the thermodynamic interpretation was debated.  
- The ethics of uplifting non-human animals to near-human sapience was explored: concerns included the psychological trauma of short natural lifespans (e.g., 12-year-old dogs), the need for radical life-extension breeding programs, and the social consequences of creating new sentient beings that could be seen as slaves.  
- Brandt’s bat (7 g, >40 yr lifespan) and human progeria/Hutchinson-Gilford syndrome were offered as contrasting models for studying longevity mechanisms; lonafarnib (a farnesyltransferase inhibitor) was noted as the first approved treatment for progeria, while cases like Brooke Greenberg illustrate extreme developmental arrest without aging.  
- Links shared: HBR article on solar’s “dark side,” EU RoHS exemption text, Nature climate-impact paper, Stanford Encyclopedia entry on the Repugnant Conclusion, and classic blog posts by David Brin and George Dvorsky on animal uplifting.