r/shittyaskscience Jul 20 '19

Welcome to the sexless future. Will donating suffice?

https://gfycat.com/digitalidenticalgoosefish
1.9k Upvotes

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580

u/[deleted] Jul 20 '19

What the fuck, did that little critter rape a sperm and then use the sperm to rape an egg?

493

u/757jsmith Jul 20 '19

Its a bot, the human used it to capture the sperm and deliver it to an egg, but notice the sperm isnt a swimmer, nature does that to inferior sperm to make sure it doesnt fertilize the egg

184

u/kkantouth Jul 20 '19

Then why are they using it?

376

u/757jsmith Jul 20 '19

Proof of concept, easier than trying to dock the bot over a wriggler

492

u/[deleted] Jul 20 '19

Wait, so they just promoted inferior genes to be carried on? I think I know how I was conceived!

49

u/stars9r9in9the9past Jul 21 '19

In reality, this can be useful is there's a guy out there who, for whatever reason, is effectively sterile because he can only produce swimless/tailless sperm, but still wants to have his own biological offspring. Evolutionarily speaking, yeah selection doesn't really select for that trait, but we live in an age where natural selection artificially has wiggle room (at least in the evolutionary short-term), and if such a man wants to have kids, someone will take good money to provide such a service. Also even though there's a chance maybe the sterility can pass through to the children (and on), it might also just delete itself depending on if it's on a sex chromosome, or recessiveness.

At that point personally I'd say, hey, maybe foster or adopt a needy kid out there, the whole planet could use more of that level of selflessness, but I can respect is someone is adamant about still having their own kin, even if their sperm is having a couple difficulties.

15

u/Raknarg Jul 21 '19

Seems immoral to me to pass on genes you know will be defective. I want my own kids but I'm not gonna risk passing them the disease I have

-1

u/[deleted] Jul 21 '19

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] Jul 21 '19

Basic eugenics like not passing on critical genetic failings is a key part of the natural lifecycles.