# Key Points from IRC Discussion on October 11, 2011

- A researcher discussed writing a paper titled "The Affirmation of Transhumanism: Uploaded Embodiment in a Virtual Environment," attempting to relate transhumanism to Becker's "The Denial of Death" and using Second Life as an example of what future mind uploading might resemble.

- The discussion touched on whether MMORPGs might be more relevant examples than Second Life for studying virtual embodiment, as they feature more interactions despite being less open-ended.

- CarbonCopies, an organization focused on whole brain emulation research, was mentioned as providing conceptual framework for the paper's introductory sections.

- A resource on virtual economies (virtual-economy.org) was shared, suggesting that economic principles might be invariant between physical and virtual environments despite differences in physical substrate.

- Participants discussed the discovery that Google's web crawler (Googlebot) now makes POST requests via AJAX, likely using the V8 JavaScript engine, which has implications for web developers.

- There was a technical discussion about miniature magnetic stir bars with various coatings (parylene vs. PTFE/Teflon), with some as small as 0.5mm diameter by 1.25mm long for use in laboratory applications.

- Tokyo Hackerspace's Geiger shield project was shared, showing community efforts to build radiation monitoring equipment, likely in response to the Fukushima disaster.