# Key Points from IRC Discussion

• A debate on technological forecasting highlighted the logical fallacy in arguing that past failures (like self-driving cars over 40 years) necessarily predict future impossibility, illustrating common reasoning errors in predicting technological development.

• Discussion revealed misleading framing in MIT Technology Review's "DIY gene therapy" article, as the therapy actually involved BioViva (a company), $250,000 in venture capital, and contracted research in Colombia—far from truly DIY.

• Research on brain-intelligence correlation was shared, showing a statistically significant but modest relationship (r=0.24) between brain size and IQ, with additional observation that head circumference in Finnish newborns has been increasing over time.

• A conversation with researcher Sri Kosuri indicated his shift away from oligonucleotide synthesis work, with participants noting a perceived disconnect between verbal support for engineering approaches and actual practice in synthetic biology.

• Adam Marblestone's PhD thesis on neural interfaces was extensively discussed, highlighting innovative concepts like "molecular ticker tape" recording and approaches to whole-brain activity mapping at millisecond resolution.

• A significant paper on protein engineering ("Design of a single-chain polypeptide tetrahedron assembled from coiled-coil segments") was shared, representing advancement in creating precise geometric protein structures through rational design.

• The economics of hardware manufacturing was debated in the context of the "Ultimate Hacking Keyboard" Crowdsupply campaign, questioning whether $200,000 was appropriate for bringing a specialized split keyboard to market.