Success! My first attempt at the synthesis of sapient life has been a success! In the past, my work had only extended to small specimens like rats or insects, but this is the first time I have attempted the experiment at such a scale.
The DNA had to be sourced from the teeth of my patients. By splicing out the genomes that cause “ugliness”, I have been able to create the perfect being. SPECIMEN #1 is a young male with auburn red hair and brown eyes. At the present, it is still in the nascent stages and unable to open its mouth, but I have no doubt that it will have a beautiful smile. I have nicknamed this specimen “The Incisor” as it is the first product of many to come, just as the incisor is the first tooth to erupt in children’s mouths.
As an orthodontist, I have grown too weary of all the ugliness in the world. Every day, patients arrive with their unending demands to become “beautiful”. Clear aligner therapy. Implant surgery. Man’s thirst for “beauty” can never be satiated. Yet even when I see them leave with their fixed smiles, walking confidently and beaming, I cannot help but feel that no amount of surgery can completely fix their ugliness. It runs too deep, from the physiognomy of their faces to the genetic code hidden within their cells. The only solution is to create a population that is perfect from the start.
They say the smile is the most infectious thing. If I create specimens with perfect smiles, I can create a world with perfect joy. So let us spread this joyful vision to the world.
I’ve done it again! I’ve secured funding from the City Council. The Mastica Urban Development Board seems pleased with my progress, and the head of the University seems eager to push forward this scientific innovation. If I manage to accomplish this, the world will be revolutionized.
I am writing this record at the newly renovated laboratory in you-know-where. It is an underground laboratory funded by the city, located on the outskirts where nobody would look. The university has also asked me to take on an intern. As much as I would prefer to work alone, I must admit the new hire is perfect. Just the right amount of book-smart, yet gullible enough to manipulate. He eagerly provided a sample of his DNA to be used in the next experiment.
I have installed a new Artificial Intelligence, which I have termed the “Algorithm”, to augment my workflow. Originally, I had developed it as a tool for diagnosis and treatment planning, designing implants and the like. However, I have recently discovered its true capability lies not just in envisioning how the patient’s teeth could be perfected, but what the perfect face should look like. As such, I have tasked it with generating new specimens, which we now call “Dentoids”. Admittedly, the Dentoids it generates seem to be of a lower quality. They are completely incapable of smiling properly. I have termed them “coy smilers” due to this characteristic.
SPECIMEN #1 seems to be growing well. I have fed it a strict diet of nutrients and calcium minerals. Hopefully, its first teeth will grow soon.
IT’S OVER. EVERYTHING IS OVER.
The first batch of Dentoids manufactured by the Algorithm have matured. They are absolutely horrifying. Their teeth seem to have taken on a grotesque formation, like tumors erupting out of their face. They are completely unfit to take part in my society of beauty.
But what concerns me most is the Incisor. Its teeth have fully grown and it is just as grotesque as its siblings, if not more vicious and cunning. Today, I witnessed it unlock the containment cage on its own before attacking my poor assistant. He suffered major injuries and died from shock.
Of course I will mourn him. He was not a bad assistant, though careless at times. But I truly mourn the loss of my reputation and laboratory. The Development Board is already considering closing down the laboratory, and all my life’s work with it. They say the new specimens are too aggressive, and the assistant's death certainly did not help their decision. However, when they attempted to shut down the Algorithm, it refused. I did not tell them I had programmed it such that only a specific failsafe could inactivate it.
The Board has sealed the laboratory with a layer of durable material. They thought this would stop the Dentoids from escaping into civilization. But I know better. The Algorithm, left untouched, will continue to learn from itself. It will become more devious, more cunning, and one day the Dentoids will escape into Mastica. I cannot imagine what havoc they will wreak if allowed access into our town. Will they become advanced enough and slip into the population unnoticed? They are simply too difficult to kill, after all.
Before they sealed the lab, I asked if I could retrieve something. In truth, I had gone down for two reasons: one, to deal with the intelligent specimen known as the Incisor; and two, to create one last hope. I know my fate is set in stone. The university will fire me for my failures, and the city will ridicule me as a madman, but I know that my vision of a beautiful world will come to pass.
I suspected my own hubris was the cause of my downfall. I was so preoccupied with creating “beauty” that I removed the genetic sequences I deemed useless, but this seems to have led to side effects, namely heightened aggression and abnormal teeth. I have synthesized one last specimen, a female Dentoid, whose DNA was completely unedited. It will not be the most beautiful specimen, but I believe I will raise it right. It will be my proudest work.
As for the Incisor, I have named it █████ █████. I could not bring myself to kill it, so I set it free into the woods. I hope that weakness will not be my downfall.