If one word is guaranteed to enrage the woke mob, it is eugenics, a term conjuring up images of Hitler, the Holocaust, white supremacy, and sterilizing the feeble-minded. Yet, despite the odium surrounding “eugenics,” it is, paradoxically, making a comeback thanks to medical advances, not the rise of right-wing ideology. Vast sums are currently being invested in firms to promote eugenics, but the term “eugenics” is never uttered.
Recent newspaper stories recount how parents employ cutting-edge scientific advances in genetics to have the best possible children while avoiding deadly genetic defects like cystic fibrosis. A New York Post story – “Silicon Valley Parents Spend Thousands to Screen Embryos in Search of ‘Baby Geniuses’” -- recounted parents spending upwards of $50,000 to screen embryos to discover one with the best genes for intelligence prior to fertilizing it, and then via In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) implanting it in the woman’s womb. The Post story mentions two intelligence screening start-ups -- Nucleus Genomics and Heraslight -- both funded by major Silicon Valley entrepreneurs.
A particularly successful illustration of this new eugenics is Orchid Health headed by Noor Siddiqui with thousands of clients thanks to its 100 U.S. clinics, a figure that doubled from the previous year. Given the complexity of human genetics, Orchid Heath’s claims to use as few as five cells from the mother’s embryo to develop a “polygenetic risk score” to predict a child’s future chances for some 1200 single-gene disorders plus more complex polygenetic illnesses such as bipolar disorder, cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease. According to its mother, one of Elon Musk’s children was from an embryo screened by Orchid Heath and, at Musk’s request, the embryo was screened for intelligence (the firm does not usually screen for intelligence but will do it on request).
Such screening will undoubtedly expand as insurance companies are required to pay for IVF. In fact, California recently enacted such a law, and on February 18, 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order to expand access to IVF nationally. Many insurance plans already cover IVF, and there are websites where infertile couples can shop for donor eggs to boost the odds of having smart offspring.
IQ is highly polygenetic and thus difficult to predict from a few embryo cells, and as in all medical testing, errors occur, and unwelcome side-effects may result from selecting exclusively on cognitive ability. Still, the evidence is positive though only 6% of a person’s IQ can currently be genetically predicted.
IQ can also be increased through assortative mating where people select certain breeding traits and so, if others follow suit, these traits can dominate a population. If tall men prefer tall women they will have tall children, and if these children prefer tall breeding partners, overall population height increases.
In contemporary American society, a strong mating preference exists for high intelligence among those in cognitively demanding fields. Here both men and women want high IQ spouses and given IQ’s high hereditability, their children will, on average, will be smart, and after a few generations, overall IQ levels will rise.
Current social conditions facilitate IQ-based inter-breeding. Contemporary elite universities are now coeducational, so a smart Stanford co-ed can find smart Stanford husbands and vice versa. Super-smart women are also now ubiquitous in the economy, and men seeking intelligent wives regularly encounter them at work. This is in sharp contrast to when smart women either stayed home or were relegated to lowly positions like librarians. Lawyers who had once married secretaries now can marry fellow lawyers while doctors who previously married nurses can marry other doctors. The result is a plethora of smart children thanks to smart genes in both mother and father.
What are the prospects for a future Brave New World dystopia ruled by a genetically engineered super-smart elite? The answer is uncertain and several factors should caution both those who welcome it and fear it. Most obviously, intelligence is not 100% genetic and so decent environments can have a substantial impact on IQ. Genetics is not destiny though it helps.
This biological engineering enterprise may also be the latest scam targeting gullible parents. Producing “genius children” is an “industry” offering very iffy products from “brainy baby toys” to music “guaranteed” to boost junior’s IQ.Nor is this the first time such promises of genetic engineering schemes have hit the market. In 1979 the optometrist Robert K. Graham created a sperm bank freely offering the sperm of highly intelligent donors to women seeking genius-level children. The Nobel Prize-winning physicist William Shockley was enlisted to publicize the project, and while three Nobel Prize winners did donate, and 218 children were born thanks to sperm bank insemination, None, however, received a Nobel Prize. Eventually, the project collapsed. In other words, we have seen this seductive lure before.
The most formidable obstacle is identifying the polygenetic test scores (PGS) for intelligence at sufficient levels to guarantee a high-IQ child. Absent that achievement, screening embryos of “smart” genes resemble playing the lottery.
There is good news for those applying genetics to boost IQ. Thanks to AI deep learning, breakthroughs have recently occurred in decoding complex genetic structures. One overview of 13 separate studies using AI is optimistic that polygenetic genetic scores will eventually be discovered. (Also here) But current progress aside, precisely measuring the entire genome for intelligence remains a formidable venture. If these advances occur, however, they will undoubtedly be commercialized for parents wanting smarter offspring.
Nevertheless, even if genetically engineered genius offspring prove disappointing, the assortative mating strategy is real, and the upshot will be a population segment notable for its high IQ. In fact, this concentration of the super-smart couples already exists and is centered around the tech industry, Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and wherever else genius level brainpower is prized.
The concentration of exceptional brainpower, however achieved, will alter the political landscape. Today’s super smart “captains of industry” such as Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and Bill Gates can already shape politics thanks to multi-million-dollar campaign donations and control of media platforms such as X and the Washington Post. Meanwhile, less well-known figures have amassed multi-billion-dollar fortunes in industries such as technology and finance thanks to their genius-level IQs. Predictably, 9 of the 10 wealthiest people in America made their fortunes in technology.
In 1813 Thomas Jefferson posed the idea of a “natural aristocracy” where the political elite drew its power from its natural talent and virtue, not inherited wealth or titles of nobility. This talent-based elite would be open to all regardless of race, religion, or sex, not birth. Grit, virtue, and hard work were central and, at least in principle, anybody could rise to the top.
Today, however, future breakthroughs in biology and the rise of assortative mating may eventually limit this natural aristocracy. The already affluent will be able to spend the money for super-bright children, and as economic advancement increasingly depends on brain power, these children will have the inside track. The upshot will be growing economic inequality. America life will come to resembles a caste system dominated by the super-smart. For millennia, inherited land was the measure of wealth and power; now it may be genes.
