# Summary of #hplusroadmap IRC Log (Feb 4, 2009)

• Babak Parviz from University of Washington was mentioned in relation to a presentation titled "Back to Nature for the Next Technology Revolution," suggesting biomimicry as a direction for technological development.

• Discussion revealed that Instructables and Make Magazine have close business ties (Saul Griffith is married to O'Reilly's daughter), raising questions about the authenticity of the DIY community ecosystem.

• Automated biological assembly was discussed, with links to Ginkgo Bioworks (ginkgobioworks.com) and a BioBricks robotic assembly project (partsregistry.org/Assembly:Robotic_assembly) showing progress in automating synthetic biology processes.

• NASA's telerobotics work was shared (ranier.hq.nasa.gov/telerobotics_page/photos.html), showing early implementations of robotic manufacturing and visual calibration systems.

• Joseph Jackson gave a presentation on "the end of scarcity" on The Speculist podcast, discussing abundance-related topics that were described as "coherent" by listeners.

• Deep sea mining of manganese nodules and gold deposits was discussed as a potential resource opportunity, with concerns about UN regulations governing ocean resource extraction.

• A paper on electron-filled balloons generating strong electric fields (500 million volts/meter) was shared, with speculation about applications for levitating vehicles.