Let’s imagine a world where reproduction has gone fully digital.
We already know that a human genome can be sequenced, stored, and simulated. Given a phased genome (with parental haplotypes separated), it’s trivial to simulate meiosis computationally: apply a realistic recombination map, sample crossover points, recombine haplotypes — voilà, a digital gamete.
Now take two such gametes — perhaps both from you, perhaps from different individuals — and combine them. The result is a new diploid genome, a digital zygote.
You can do this a million times in a second. You can apply filters, polygenic scores, even “genetic aesthetics” heuristics. Biological evolution becomes Monte Carlo simulation on a cloud instance.
So here’s the philosophical question:
If that digital zygote’s genome could, in principle, be synthesized into DNA and placed in a viable embryo someday…
If a genetic test would recognize it as your child…
If it shares half of your alleles, just as any biological offspring would…
Then — is it your biological child already?
Personally, I think this might be the most down-to-earth way for life to continue into the cyber age.
Consciousness uploading, memory replication, digital twins — all of them run into the same philosophical wall:
when a copy wakes up, who is it really?
But digital gametes don’t have that problem.
Their outcome isn’t “another you” — it’s simply your offspring.
They follow the same biological logic that nature already wrote: recombination, variation, inheritance.
Can We Simulate Meiosis to Create Digital Gametes — and Are the Results Your Biological Offspring?
Let’s imagine a world where reproduction has gone fully digital.
We already know that a human genome can be sequenced, stored, and simulated. Given a phased genome (with parental haplotypes separated), it’s trivial to simulate meiosis computationally: apply a realistic recombination map, sample crossover points, recombine haplotypes — voilà, a digital gamete.
Now take two such gametes — perhaps both from you, perhaps from different individuals — and combine them. The result is a new diploid genome, a digital zygote.
You can do this a million times in a second. You can apply filters, polygenic scores, even “genetic aesthetics” heuristics. Biological evolution becomes Monte Carlo simulation on a cloud instance.
So here’s the philosophical question:
If that digital zygote’s genome could, in principle, be synthesized into DNA and placed in a viable embryo someday…
If a genetic test would recognize it as your child…
If it shares half of your alleles, just as any biological offspring would…
Then — is it your biological child already?
Personally, I think this might be the most down-to-earth way for life to continue into the cyber age.
Consciousness uploading, memory replication, digital twins — all of them run into the same philosophical wall:
when a copy wakes up, who is it really?
But digital gametes don’t have that problem.
Their outcome isn’t “another you” — it’s simply your offspring.
They follow the same biological logic that nature already wrote: recombination, variation, inheritance.