# Key Points from ##hplusroadmap IRC Conversation

• A participant described their work on a DIY Raspberry Pi-based Raman spectrometer with an estimated $500 BOM cost, highlighting thermal stability of lasers as a critical factor for accurate spectroscopic readings.

• Detailed technical discussion occurred about reverse engineering Bluetooth devices, with recommendations to use software-based function hooking rather than SDR approaches, particularly by decompiling Android apps to understand device protocols.

• Participants debated access to consumer EEG device data, criticizing high developer kit pricing tiers ($199-$10k) as barriers to innovation and wider adoption of brain-computer interface technology.

• The conversation included analysis of the Matrioshka brain concept (originated by Robert Bradbury) - a hypothetical megastructure of immense computational capacity based on the Dyson sphere concept.

• A participant shared insights from a meetup with Novozymes, a $10B market cap company designing enzymes, noting novel applications of sequencing for optimizing synthetic organism output.

• Technical debate occurred about GUI development approaches, comparing embedded Chromium (cefpython) versus native frameworks like wxPython or GTK for desktop applications.

• The group discussed TRIZ (Theory of Inventive Problem Solving), a systematic innovation methodology developed by Soviet patent examiner Genrich Altshuller, alongside sharing resources for Soviet patents (patentdb.su).

• Participants critically analyzed transhumanist organizations, noting that Russian transhumanist groups were "slightly more aware of how crappy the community is" but implemented problematic solutions like massive daily Skype calls.