Another part of your friend's talk that interested me was the idea of creating new instruments. Are you aware of musicians who have taken that idea and used it outside of the chiptunes movement?
There's a few people that I can think of that do some crazy things, such as Oneohtrix Point Never who takes vocals and turns them into drum beats in some of his songs on R Plus Seven. Another example of somebody creating their own stuff is Dan Deacon. That said, you can take a sample or take a DI instrument, record it, and tweak the settings within a DAW to effectively make something very cool and all your own. However, I can't think of anybody or any other scene where what you make starts with nothing, and everything that you hear has been programmed from scratch instruments included. Chip is great because you have a blank canvas every time.
That Oneohtrix Point Never track was interesting, but not really up my alley. I am glad to have checked it out though, especially given the context. I think that's a really interesting idea. For some reason, it reminds me of Michel Gondry and Bjork's Paint Piano, I guess in the way that things are brought together to make something new. I really like the ideas that Dan Deacon has. That thing with the phones has some serious possibilities. Good stuff man, thanks.