# Summary of IRC Conversation on February 21, 2016

* Discussion about genetic engineering as a potential solution to declining birth rates in industrialized countries like Japan, with suggestions that parents might be more willing to have children if they could guarantee certain outcomes through genetic editing.

* TMA shared evolutionary psychology research suggesting that birth rate reduction can be a viable fitness maximization strategy, where parents provide greater resources to fewer offspring to maximize grandchildren's success.

* FourFire mentioned a project in Oslo makerspaces to build proof-of-concept automated factory systems using shopbots that could handle materials and complete jobs without human involvement, with kanzure suggesting LinuxCNC as an appropriate platform.

* A deep learning system called aging.ai was discussed, which uses neural networks trained on blood test samples to predict age, though some participants questioned the technical approach based on the limited parameters used.

* A synthetic biology conference (SynBioFuture 2016) was mentioned with livestream tickets available, prompting criticism about restricting access to online content.

* Conversation touched on evolutionary strategies where having fewer children (around three per generation) might be optimal for maximizing total fitness across multiple generations by providing more resources to each child.