Child Creator

Prose, Future
May 6, 2017

No, give him green eyes.

Yes. There we go. That looks good. Let me see the profile.

Hmm. The nose seems stuffy now. Like, almost crooked. Right?

Can we adjust that a little? Give it some… cuteness.
Make it… yes, like that. I like those pores now. The bridge is nice, maybe bump it another few millimetres. There we go. Beautiful.

Do we want a bit more lip there?

No, no. It’s too much, that kind of thing makes him look like a playboy. Yeah, make it a little more… innocent. There. Want him to say “hi!”, but not… you know, “heeeyy”.

God. Now I’m not sure about the eyes again. Maybe blue was better?

No, wait, let me look at the body again.
Ah. Hm.
There’s some potential for a good athlete. Got those runner’s thighs, I like that. Should we adjust the upper body to match a bit? He looks almost too bottom-heavy. Give his shoulders a little more width. Broader. Yes. Good.

You think we should mark his jaw clearer? I don’t know. We don’t want him to be too perfect, you know? He shouldn’t look like a doll. We’ve got to leave some of the human in there. But, just, you know, spruce it up a bit.

Oh. Wait. Shit. He has a third nipple. Almost missed it, because of the clothing simulation. Phew.
Gone. Yes, don’t worry. I got it.

Now, hair color. We’ve been avoiding the topic. Yes, yes, I know you want it to be black. But… I mean, that’s so traditional, isn’t it? What about giving it a bit of a red tinge? Or maybe just auburn? I could accept chestnut.
Yeah. Like… maybe a little more. Ok.
You sure?
Fine. I’ll accept it. If I get my chins back. Yes. Yes! Come on.
No? All right, then. Red hair it is.

His fingers are a little long. I guess that’s good for piano. Do we want him to play piano?
Maybe, yeah? It could be nice with some music in the house. I’ve always wanted an artistic part of the family. Yes. In fact, let’s extend them a bit. Not too much, just…. Perfect.

Let me see his full body again. Just a last check.

You like him now?
Any last changes?

No, he’s good. Yeah.

Save that for me. Let’s sleep on it. I’m happy, for now, but you know me. I’ll probably hate it tomorrow. We paid a premium for this, they’ll allow us to change our minds.

Yes, I know. We should buy a crib for him too.




Thoughts:

This is a bit outside my normal wheelhouse, but I watched Idea Channel's latest episode on editing genomes, and this idea immediately popped into my head.
I basically asked the question what if it got so easy to edit genes as it is to move sliders in a video game character generator. And this is a quick little experiment on that idea. I think you could write whole books on the topic, but I'm not sure I'm the one to actually do that. But hey, here it is. I really like this piece.
And go watch that Idea Channel episode if you hadn't. Gave me a lot of new perspectives on the topic I hadn't considered.