This is a very interesting paper @quisco, thanks very much for sharing! I like this: Among all the possible elastic layouts to solve a specific structural problem, the optimal is also the stiffest - if we can get cheap carbon fibres / nanotubes that sequester CO2 (see C2CNT) this could greatly improve structural optimization.
I have a germ of an idea to use Reinforcement Learning to train agents to grow to optimized structural forms applying random MC loading every iteration, and rewarding based on set objectives. S.E.C.S. looks like it provides a good objective for the model.