Making a Baby
The car slowly came to a stop outside of the house. The front yard was covered in wildflowers and hummingbirds enjoying their buffet.
Meanwhile, Luis had started fussing with the car seat he had been magnetically buckled into, nearly bouncing out of his seat as he struggled with the safety locks.
Celeste turned to the backseat and brushed her fingerprint against the buckle in order to activate its release. Luis was ready to open the door for his playdate, but Celeste had something she wanted to discuss first.
“Hey buddy,” she started hesitantly. “Would you like to have a little sister to play with?”
Luis’s hand stopped on the door release. She could see his small brain processing the question.
“A sister?” he looked over at his mom. “Can we play blocks together?”
Scott smiled at his son and tapped his fingers together.
“She can learn, bud. Well, you go enjoy your playdate. Your mom and I are going to head home and get started on making her for you.”
“Alright!” Luis exclaimed as he pushed open the door. He scrambled out of the car and down the walkway to the house.
The door closed automatically and the two of them were left alone with a goal in mind. Scott immediately took off his dad hat and put his project manager hat on.
“Did you review the trait reports I sent over? When one sibling has an artistic aptitude and the other a mathematical one, there is the highest level of compatibility during childhood development.”
“I skimmed through them this morning, but I had to get Luis ready too,” she turned her gaze from her son to the front view window as the car began to take them back home. “It seemed very optimal, but didn’t say much for the chances of variance.”
When they finished the short drive home, they went straight up to the bedroom. Celeste laid down in bed and rested her head against the pillow. Scott went to the dresser and picked up a tablet.
He laid down next to her and held the tablet up so that both of them could see the app load.
Stork 2.0
A sleek interface appeared after the splashscreen with a sleek interface reminiscent of luxury vehicle selector. A photorealistic avatar of a female infant appeared on the other side of the controls. It looked perfectly content.
Scott looked at the menu options:
- Aesthetics
- Cognition
- Physiology
- Aptitude
Celeste pointed her finger at the third menu option. “Let’s start with her immune system. You got your holiday bonus, so we should go with the full package. I don’t want to compromise. Just in case. Polygenic risk scores for everything. Zero out cancers, neurogenerative disorders, autoimmunes, etc.”
Luis had only been eligible for the standard package, as that was what they could all afford at the time. When he was born, he was vulnerable to common allergies. Celeste was always a little nervous to let him run around outside, in case something happened to him.
“I agree,” Scott tapped on the Physiology menu and selected the Immunity Prime package. At the bottom of the screen, underneath the avatar of their upcoming daughter, was a new cart option showing the current price tag.
“I was thinking we should select for musical aptitude,” he suggested. “It’s on sale. Give her perfect pitch and good hearing into her senior years.”
Celeste nodded numbly as he pressed another set of items to add to the cart.
“Okay, let’s go back to Aesthetics.”
A new set of menu items appeared, with everything from eye color to height in adulthood.
“We could go with a recessive blue eye color. It’d match you. That would be a fairly cheap CRISPR edit.”
He tapped on the Blue color option and the baby’s avatar had her eyes change to a familiar sky blue.
“I’d like that. It would be natural for her to have it. It’d feel like a piece of me is in her.”
“Or we could go with something more boutique.”
He swiped to another set of colors. The avatar’s eyes changed to a hazel with tiny flecks that appeared to shine.
“This is one of their patented genetic sequences. It’s quite fashionable right now.”
Celeste frowned. There was definitely a question of longevity. Were eye colors supposed to be chosen for a moment of fashion?
“Let’s go into the Personality settings,” he could sense her indecision.
There was a new screen showing a new set of sliders. One read Curiosity and the other Compliance. As one went up, the other went down. He could choose the individual percentage of each. He reached and moved the slider for Compliance to 65%.
“Just a bit more agreeable than Luis would be nice,” he looked over at his wife. “It would make adolescence easier. And help her and Luis connect.”
“Help or just make her passive?” She argued.
Celeste grabbed the Curiosity slider and pulled it all the way to 70%.
“I want her to question things, Scott. I don’t want a daughter who is just optimized for our convenience.”
The two of them lay there staring at all the data for the child they would raise, with a level of customization they didn’t have when their parents were conceiving. They would be able to pick and choose what made the perfect daughter. The biggest question was whether they could agree on what perfect meant.