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submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

Quest to create viable human sex cells in lab progressing rapidly, with huge implications for reproduction

Scientists are just a few years from creating viable human sex cells in the lab, according to an internationally renowned pioneer of the field, who says the advance could open up biology-defying possibilities for reproduction.

Speaking to the Guardian, Prof Katsuhiko Hayashi, a developmental geneticist at the University of Osaka, said rapid progress is being made towards being able to transform adult skin or blood cells into eggs and sperm, a feat of genetic conjury known as in-vitro gametogenesis (IVG).

His own lab is about seven years away from the milestone, he predicts. Other frontrunners include a team at the University of Kyoto and a California-based startup, Conception Biosciences, whose Silicon Valley backers include the OpenAI founder, Sam Altman and whose CEO told the Guardian that growing eggs in the lab “might be the best tool we have to reverse population decline” and could pave the way for human gene editing.

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[-] [email protected] 58 points 1 month ago

I'll never understand people who complain about population decline. It's a good thing. There are too many people here already. My thought on reading the headline was that it could be used in a different way. Everyone could be voluntarily sterilized, and then when they are ready and willing to have a kid they could use this new method to produce sex cells. No more unwanted pregnancies.

[-] [email protected] 106 points 1 month ago

Population decline is not a problem for humanity. It is a problem for capitalism.

[-] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Even worse they're probably looking at the projection and seeing a loss of revenue directly related to population rates. They want more sheep to feed their money making systems.

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[-] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

Depopulation is a problem for any economic system. You can't run any form of government or economy when young workers aren't contributing to the tax base and the aging population requires more and more care.

Sure as clockwork someone will come along and say tax the rich. That only works for so long in this scenario. The rich get rich off our backs. No backs, no rich.

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[-] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

That's the actual setup of ergo proxy...not that they are volountarily sterilised. The whole point us the artifucial womb. I don't know if you watched it but if you haven't, do it.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Mandating that girls from age of 12 be inseminated with republican zionist sperm once per year would be more "America first" policy.

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[-] [email protected] 29 points 1 month ago

Ah yes great I feel at ease now, knowing Sam Altman gives the thumbs up to this

That little voice telling me this is a very sharp double edged sword probably doesn't know shit

[-] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago

There are so many double-edged swords lying around these days I feel like it’ll be death by a thousand cuts from double-edged swords.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

I read five lines into the news and thought "oh well shoot, now billionaires are going to try reverse the population decline due to the shitty world they created so that they can continue to generate labour and revenue and make the rest of us fight for resources in an over crowded world". And what do you know Sam Altman was the first shit face to confirm my speculations.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

I'm a bit dull to predict the future. But I can see we already have "ownership" of GMOs available for companies. The "Dire Wolves" that got resurrected that you don't hear about anymore belong to a company. We got plenty of examples of companies marketing something as positive, such as Monsanto saying they actually feed the planet and whatnot. Companies that start open source suddenly turning for profit. And unscrupulous governments and corruption.

And now you have unlocked the possibility of creating fully customized humans in a lab.

What could go wrong?

Don't get me wrong I totally see how the technology can also be used for good. That's what OpenAI says about their product, too.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Yeah it's gonna be some Black Mirror shit

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Altman be praised! /s

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

"Just a a few years away" means, "We are attempting to grift a billionaire", and it won't be achieved. I wish the company many well funded years of unprofitable operation.

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[-] [email protected] 20 points 1 month ago

Production of humans without ties to historical family lines, would they have a number for a surname?

[-] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago

Welcome to the brave new world order

And, in effect, eighty-three almost noseless black brachycephalic Deltas were cold-pressing. The fifty-six four-spindle chucking and turning machines were being manipulated by fifty-six aquiline and ginger Gammas. One hundred and seven heat-conditioned Epsilon Senegalese were working in the foundry. Thirty-three Delta females, long-headed, sandy, with narrow pelvises, and all within 20 millimetres of 1 metre 69 centimetres tall, were cutting screws. In the assembling room, the dynamos were being put together by two sets of Gamma-Plus dwarfs. The two low work-tables faced one another; between them crawled the conveyor with its load of separate parts; forty-seven blonde heads were confronted by forty-seven brown ones. Forty-seven snubs by forty-seven hooks; forty-seven receding by forty-seven prognathous chins. The completed mechanisms were inspected by eighteen identical curly auburn girls in Gamma green, packed in crates by thirty-four short-legged, left-handed male Delta-Minuses, and loaded into waiting trucks and lorries by sixty-three blue-eyed, flaxen and freckled Epsilon Semi-Morons.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokanovsky%27s_Process_(Brave_New_World)

[-] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

Funnily enough I think I read that novel like twenty years ago

[-] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

I still say it is/was much more prescient than 1984.

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[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

...and be trained in the art of killing?

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

having a name at all implies they are human and deserve a name. they will have call signs and serial numbers.

1000001710

[-] [email protected] 17 points 1 month ago

Aha. So that's why they don't care if everyone but the billionaires die.

[-] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago

Blade Runner and 40k have entered the chat.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago

And Starwars

Kaminoan meme

[-] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Isnt this just cloning? Like if they grew sperm cells and eggs from my dandruff and combined them

[-] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

No, it is something different. Cloning creates a another being with the exact same DNA. This would allow people, who can't produce viable sperm/egg cells, to reproduce with their partner. First patients would be infertile men and women.

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[-] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

I prefer my omelette without sperm, but to each their own I guess !

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

There used to be a video on porn hub where multiple dudes nut in a frying pan. Some chick then proceeds to Crack a couple eggs to create a jizz omelet then feeds it to some other girl. Anyways

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

No f'ing way. 😂

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[-] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago
[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

Military applications for ward of the state and "universal soldier" applications! Yay humanity.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

Oh good. Replicants. Can't wait to be an old man in the Bladerunner universe.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

I first read that as 'spam and eggs' and thought ... who the hell wants lab-grown spam?

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[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

They are going after Hitler wet dream to create super human.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

babies they can sell into slavery.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

You are a true believer. Blessings of the state, blessings of the masses. Thou art a subject of the divine. Created in the image of man, by the masses, for the masses. Let us be thankful we have an occupation to fill. Work hard; increase production, prevent accidents, and be happy.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

give me a grant and I'll make sperm in a lab, it's a lot of handy work.

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this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2025
153 points (97.5% liked)

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