It really depends on your technique. If you are doing CRISPR microinjection (which is very simple, and you should probably not do, because there are other better techniques) then there will likely be off-target mutations. However, in other techniques, you can do quality control, screening, and sequencing before the cells divide or before the embryo implants etc. There are lots of quality control things that can be done which haven’t been done yet for human embryo modification.
How many IQ points could be gained with just embryo selection?
It depends on how many embryos you have available. For a normal round of IVF, you’re only looking at like 8 embryo choices. It depends on the parents as well. If they don’t have the mutations in the first place, then there’s nothing to select. I actually think memory is something that should be easier to test for and figure out. If we really wanted to figure out biological intelligence, then we should run a long-term large-scale animal breeding experiment where we try to breed an animal for higher intelligence. We have never done that before, ever. ((Dogs don’t count here. Working dogs have specific jobs and while that’s smarter, it’s not the same thing as selecting for overall general intelligence. I’d imagine that kind of dog would be disruptive in the farm work environment anyway… especially an intermediate along the way to higher intelligence.))
It really depends on your technique. If you are doing CRISPR microinjection (which is very simple, and you should probably not do, because there are other better techniques) then there will likely be off-target mutations. However, in other techniques, you can do quality control, screening, and sequencing before the cells divide or before the embryo implants etc. There are lots of quality control things that can be done which haven’t been done yet for human embryo modification.
It depends on how many embryos you have available. For a normal round of IVF, you’re only looking at like 8 embryo choices. It depends on the parents as well. If they don’t have the mutations in the first place, then there’s nothing to select. I actually think memory is something that should be easier to test for and figure out. If we really wanted to figure out biological intelligence, then we should run a long-term large-scale animal breeding experiment where we try to breed an animal for higher intelligence. We have never done that before, ever. ((Dogs don’t count here. Working dogs have specific jobs and while that’s smarter, it’s not the same thing as selecting for overall general intelligence. I’d imagine that kind of dog would be disruptive in the farm work environment anyway… especially an intermediate along the way to higher intelligence.))