Bogus Ep 1, pt 1: Good-genics
Om avsnittet
Elisa takes the wheel for a special episode exploring a concept popular in rationalist/effective altruist circles: "Genomic Emancipation," or, depending on who you ask, how and why you should have superbabies, as quickly and in as large numbers as possible.
Content warnings: eugenics, ableism, audism.
Citations, sources, and further reading
... are TOO LONG for this text box! Please check out the full reading list here: https://drive.proton.me/urls/AMNWHDKCSC#YZMyHHMYjDr6
Below is a selection of some of the major stuff because clicking links is hard, I get it.
Podcasts & video essays
Molly Conger, "Weird Little Guys": https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-weird-little-guys-201395214/
The Bell Curve - Shaun on YouTube: https://youtu.be/UBc7qBS1Ujo?si=SrLDOAq_o1BlPLfo
Polygenic screening
Are "Designer Babies" a scam? Can You Really Choose Your 'Best' Baby?" (New York Magazine): https://archive.is/iN83l
Creating Baby Geniuses to Thwart the AI Threat? (Yes, Really.) (Mother Jones): https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/04/gene-editing-optimization-thiel-altman-armstrong-andreessen-ai-iq/
Screening embryos for polygenic disease risk: a review of epidemiological, clinical, and ethical considerations: https://academic.oup.com/humupd/article/30/5/529/7684172
Ethical and social implications of implementing polygenic embryo screening into clinical care: A scoping review https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2949774426009155
What a Polygenic Risk Score Can and Can’t Tell You: https://magazine.hms.harvard.edu/articles/what-polygenic-risk-score-can-and-cant-tell-you .
These companies help parents try to pick their babies' traits. Experts are wary (NPR): https://www.npr.org/2026/05/06/nx-s1-5704317/genetic-embryo-screening
Pronatalism
First Natalism Conference: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/04/28/natalism-conference-austin-00150338
Simone wrote Trump's "mom medals" executive order: https://www.thehastingscenter.org/more-and-better-babies-the-dark-side-of-the-pronatalist-movement/
Pronatalist.org (Check out their Policy page!!)
Malcolm's LW post: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Ft9mpiX3RcisntrMN/malcolm-collins-s-shortform
Talking about Aella: https://basedcamppodcast.substack.com/p/researching-a-gang-bang-made-my-wife
A sample of the Collins’ YouTube page: https://archive.org/details/screenshot-2026-10-12-183430
Zvi’s interest in the population crisis, particularly re: the status of motherhood: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/xJw5eetbzNNu9SiSZ/fertility-roundup-6-the-art-of-more-dakka
Aella
A Faine Greenwood thread documenting various things about Aella, SlutCon, and the sex scene in the AI safety community in the Bay: https://bsky.app/profile/faineg.com/post/3mwjphbqsqs26
Manifest
https://www.thenewcritic.com/p/manifest-man
Tsvi
Chisme about Lighthaven's eugenics conference: https://undark.org/2026/04/08/genetics-artificial-inheritance/
"Genomic emancipation": https://berkeleygenomics.org/articles/Genomic_emancipation.html
"Genomic emancipation contra eugenics": https://berkeleygenomics.org/articles/Genomic_emancipation_contra_eugenics.html
IQ, genes, and environment
Is IQ Genetic? https://acisiq.com/is-iq-genetic-what-heritability-actually-means
Ditch "g" factor: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10301777/
Penn State (2024): https://science.psu.edu/news/genes-or-environment-new-model-understanding-disease-risk-factors and (2025): https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-024-03483-9
Jonathan Anomaly
Source for Johnomaly's given name (and the picture of Cofnas, Yarvin, and Hanania): https://www.pinkerite.com/2025/03/jonathan-anomaly-files-slapp-lawsuit.html
"Can 'eugenics' be defended?" https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40592-021-00129-1
"The Superbaby Factory" https://investigations.hopenothate.org.uk/superbaby-factory/
Disabilities!!!
Autistic Self Advocacy Network comments about germline editing: https://autisticadvocacy.org/2019/10/asan-comments-on-the-clinical-use-of-human-germline-genome-editing/
Parents do not regret their Down syndrome children! https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3353148/
Iceland https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-01/iceland-prenatal-testing-down-syndrome-ethics/103781058
Film and culture recs
Sound and Fury (2000) + 2006 followup short -
A World Without Down Syndrome (2016) - Actress and BBC presenter Sally Phillips bounces from NHS offices to British living rooms to Iceland, all to investigate what is motivating people to terminate Down pregnancies. Phillips has a child with Down syndrome.
Stuff I read for this episode but didn't get to
"The New Eugenics" (is IVF):https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5965496/
Jonathan Anomaly smuggling more race science in: https://altrightorigins.com/2020/07/03/guest-post-on-the-intellectual-dishonestly-of-recent-hereditarian-papers-part-three/
Herasight goes all in on eugenics https://theinfinitesimal.substack.com/p/embryo-selection-company-herasight
Stuff we mentioned
Jack Saint’s “Cultural Gen0c1d3”: https://youtu.be/dTfR4xjqeUM?si=fiYtvpYg79J9RPoq
Australia’s history of cultural genocide in the Stolen Generations: https://australian.museum/learn/first-nations/stolen-generation/
OpenAI’s hack of Australia’s Medicare statistics portal (which Anthea mischaracterized as a hack into Medicare enrollment): https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/09/heres-what-actually-happened-in-openais-australian-govt-server-hack/
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