Let’s imagine a world where reproduction has gone fully digital.

We already know that a human genome can be sequenced, stored, and simulated. Given a phased genome (with parental haplotypes separated), it’s trivial to simulate meiosis computationally: apply a realistic recombination map, sample crossover points, recombine haplotypes — voilà, a digital gamete.

Now take two such gametes — perhaps both from you, perhaps from different individuals — and combine them. The result is a new diploid genome, a digital zygote.

You can do this a million times in a second. You can apply filters, polygenic scores, even “genetic aesthetics” heuristics. Biological evolution becomes Monte Carlo simulation on a cloud instance.

So here’s the philosophical question:

If that digital zygote’s genome could, in principle, be synthesized into DNA and placed in a viable embryo someday…

If a genetic test would recognize it as your child…

If it shares half of your alleles, just as any biological offspring would…

Then — is it your biological child already?

Personally, I think this might be the most down-to-earth way for life to continue into the cyber age.

Consciousness uploading, memory replication, digital twins — all of them run into the same philosophical wall:

when a copy wakes up, who is it really?

But digital gametes don’t have that problem.

Their outcome isn’t “another you” — it’s simply your offspring.

They follow the same biological logic that nature already wrote: recombination, variation, inheritance.