this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2025
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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] 3 points 1 hour ago

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

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour ago (2 children)

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] 1 points 15 minutes ago

low sodium eggs!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour ago

No f'ing way. 😂

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 hours ago

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

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 hours ago

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

[–] [email protected] 17 points 16 hours ago (3 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 12 minutes 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] 2 points 6 hours ago

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

[–] [email protected] 8 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

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 16 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 6 points 16 hours ago

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

[–] [email protected] 5 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 hours ago

Sshh, dear, don't cause a fuss. I'll have your spam. I love it. I'm having spam spam spam spam spam spam spam beaked beans spam spam spam and spam!

Vikings (singing): Spam spam spam spam. Lovely spam! Wonderful spam!

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 day ago

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

[–] [email protected] 64 points 1 day ago (9 children)

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] 1 points 6 hours ago

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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

No more unwanted pregnancies.

... and no more poor stupid people (as per Musk's eugenics beliefs)

[–] [email protected] 105 points 1 day ago (3 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 hours ago

People would have lots of kids if each subsequent child didn’t make their existing family’s life much more difficult

[–] [email protected] 11 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 18 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

What a succinct, compelling argument!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 18 hours ago

Alright, ill do a mostly complete argument. Define depopulation please :3

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 13 hours ago

Well of course

[–] [email protected] 7 points 21 hours 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] 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yes, that sounds like a wonderful idea. Let’s put the reproductive future of the species under commercial and/or governmental control.

Both of those things are demonstrably trustworthy, especially in the last decade.

We should cede all control to them. Indeed.

(/s)

Are you a young naive tech bro, or a Nazi Eugenicist? Is there a difference anymore? Have you even thought about what you are saying? That’s an insane take.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 day ago

Um I never said anything about giving control to anyone... in fact I specifically said "voluntarily"... you seem like an angry person who is looking for things to be mad about. I'm not sure how you jumped to calling me a nazi.

I have thought about what I'm saying, have you? Unwanted pregnancies are something that by definition nobody wants. All I said was that this could be a way to address that, and you took that simple idea and ran to crazy town with it.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 day ago (4 children)

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] 2 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

"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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

I hope you are so right, I really hope

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 hours ago

Not like the story will end. This one's in the same cabinet as combatting aging.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 13 hours ago

Altman be praised! /s

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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 18 hours ago (1 children)

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 13 hours ago

Yeah it's gonna be some Black Mirror shit

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day 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] 6 points 1 day ago
[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Blade Runner and 40k have entered the chat.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago

And Starwars

Kaminoan meme

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 hours ago

I guess, if you manage to create both sperm and eggs from the same sample and then use it to create an embryo. It sounds prone to a lot of defects though, for the same reason it's not recommended to have offspring with your siblings. I don't think that's what they're going after here.

The presumption is that they would be able to combine sperm and eggs that are different enough to avoid this. Just like with any regular pregnancy.

Keep in mind we already know how to manipulate/edit genes to enhance or suppress traits. Being able to conceive an embryo in vitro means you can now create a human tailored to your liking, without even needing a womb. That's a couple steps beyond cloning.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

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] 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

babies they can sell into slavery.

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