This post was inspired by some talks at the recent LessOnline conference including one by LessWrong user “Gene Smith”.

Let's say you want to have a “designer baby”. Genetically extraordinary in some way — super athletic, super beautiful, whatever.

6’5”, blue eyes, with a trust fund.

Ethics aside[1], what would be necessary to actually do this?

Fundamentally, any kind of “superbaby” or “designer baby” project depends on two steps:

1.) figure out what genes you ideally want;

2.) create an embryo with those genes.

It's already standard to do a very simple version of this two-step process. In the typical course of in-vitro fertilization (IVF), embryos are usually screened for chromosomal abnormalities that would cause disabilities like Down Syndrome, and only the “healthy” embryos are implanted.