Francois Chaubard posted a call for presenters on September 23 for the next YC Paper Club. The theme is alternative compute paradigms. He specifically requested speakers on optical compute, stating it cannot be the case that systems talk to data centers in light, talk intra-datacenter in light, then convert to electrons to do math because that generates heat and consumes energy. The post identifies Chaubard as founder of Focal Systems, a YC-backed AI retail automation company with major retailer adoption, and a Stanford AI PhD student.