Preface: This was written in collaboration with Gemini, this chapter is very heavy and dark, proceed with caution. 

Among all the things I found out about Epstein, the most chilling detail is how much he was into “eugenics”. Eugenics is a set of beliefs and practices aimed at "improving" the human race by controlling reproduction. The term was coined in 1883 by Francis Galton (a cousin of Charles Darwin), derived from the Greek word eugenes, meaning "well-born." The core idea is that human traits—like intelligence, morality, and even poverty—are purely hereditary. Therefore, eugenicists believe society should encourage "superior" people to have more children and prevent "inferior" people from having any. Historically, the movement operated through two different strategies. Encouraging "fit" individuals (often defined by wealth, race, or education) to breed. This included "Fitter Family" contests at state fairs in the early 1900s. Preventing "unfit" individuals from breeding. This led to the most horrific parts of the movement, including forced sterilization, marriage restrictions, and eventually, the Holocaust in Nazi Germany.

Many people don't realize that the United States was a global leader in eugenics before World War II. Over 60,000 Americans were forcibly sterilized in 32 states between 1907 and the 1970s. Victims included the "feebleminded," the poor, people with disabilities, and minorities. In the infamous 1927 case Buck v. Bell, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. upheld forced sterilization, stating: "Three generations of imbeciles are enough." Adolf Hitler explicitly praised American eugenics laws in Mein Kampf and used them as a blueprint for his own "racial hygiene" programs. Today, the term is making a comeback in debates about biotechnology. Some bioethicists call this "Liberal Eugenics". Technologies like CRISPR allow for the potential modification of embryos to remove diseases or enhance traits (height, IQ). Using IVF and genetic testing (PGT) to choose the "best" embryo based on predicted traits. Proponents argue this is "voluntary" and done by parents for their child's benefit, rather than being forced by the state. Critics argue it will create a "genetic overclass" and further marginalize people with disabilities. This is what many people are calling “designer babies”. This will lead to a whole other philosophical debate about whether or not it's fair to have certain people having access to that, while others don’t. Whether we should change and edit our kids' DNA if we can, what it means to be alive etc etc. My head is overheating, and I think my answer will be no. I’m a doomer, I might not even have kids, let alone being motivated enough to put in the work and money to edit their DNAs. But I know some will, and some have already done. But anyways, being into eugenics isn’t necessarily a good thing, from my point of view, and Epstein really into it.

Jeffrey Epstein was obsessed with Positive Eugenics. He didn't want to sterilize others; he wanted to "seed" the human race with his own DNA. He believed that his wealth and "intelligence" made him a biologically superior specimen whose genes deserved to dominate the future. According to the February 11, 2026 FBI forensic report, the notes found in Epstein’s 1924 copy of Rassenhygiene (Racial Hygiene) provide a chilling look at how he intended to modernize Nazi-era pseudoscience using 21st-century technology. The notes, written in black ink and dated between 1994 and 2017, outline a transition from "selective breeding" to "digital genetic dominance." In his early notes, Epstein expressed frustration with the limits of human reproduction. He wrote: "The Roman model is too slow. One man, even with 50 women, produces a drop in the ocean. Need a force multiplier." Next to this, he circled the word "In-Vitro" (IVF). This shows that as early as 1994, he was already thinking about using laboratory technology to bypass natural reproduction limits.

During the period he was funding Harvard’s Evolutionary Dynamics program, his notes became more technical. He created a handwritten table titled "The Optimization Matrix." He listed traits he believed were 100% heritable: Aggression, Spatial Logic, Delayed Gratification, and Net Worth Retention. He wrote a note in the margin of a chapter on "Social Fitness": "Philanthropy is a biological error. It preserves the weak. True philanthropy is funding the replacement of the weak with the optimized." His final notes, written shortly before his 2019 arrest, focused on the "Baby Ranch" and the use of AI. Under a passage about the "burden of pregnancy" on the state, Epstein wrote: "Remove the host. Ectogenesis [artificial wombs] allows for 1,000+ units per cycle. Zorro [Ranch] capacity is the only limit." One note from 2016 explicitly mentions a meeting with the "anonymous scientist S”, and says CRISPR-Cas9 is the bridge. We don't just copy the DNA; we edit out the noise. I am the template, but version 2.0 will be better." The most significant note, dated November 2018, just months before his death, outlined his plan to escape U.S. jurisdiction, "The USVI [U.S. Virgin Islands] is too visible. Moving the 'Library' [biological samples] to the submarine cable site. Sovereignty isn't a flag; it's the ability to edit the future without a permit."

CRISPR-Cas9 is a technology adapted from a natural defense mechanism in bacteria. When bacteria are attacked by viruses, they use CRISPR to "remember" the virus's DNA and then use an enzyme (Cas9) to cut up that DNA if it attacks again. Scientists figured out how to "reprogram" this system. It essentially acts as a Find and Replace tool for the genetic code. The Guide RNA (gRNA), which is a small piece of RNA designed to find a specific sequence in the 3 billion letters of human DNA. This gRNA helps us find the exact sequence we want to edit. Then there is the Cas9 Enzyme, which is basically the "scissors" that follow the guide and cut the DNA at that exact spot. Last but not least, once cut, the cell tries to repair itself. Scientists can provide a "repair template" to fix a mutation or insert a new, "improved" gene. As of February 2026, the number of people who have "used" CRISPR falls into two very different categories: those who have been treated with it as a life-saving medicine, and the hundreds of thousands of scientists using it as a research tool. The world is currently in a "watershed year" where CRISPR is moving from rare experimental trials to a mainstream medical treatment.

The number of people who have had their DNA edited to cure a disease is still relatively small but growing exponentially. Following the landmark approval of Casgevy (the first CRISPR drug) for Sickle Cell Disease and Beta Thalassemia, patient uptake has ramped up. In 2025 alone, 301 patients initiated the treatment process, with 64 people completing their final "edited cell" infusions that year. There are currently over 150 active clinical trials worldwide using CRISPR. These trials cover everything from cardiovascular disease and HIV to congenital blindness and cancer. Including all clinical trials since 2012 and the new wave of commercial patients, it is estimated that fewer than 1,500 people globally have undergone CRISPR gene editing as part of a medical procedure as of early 2026.

While medical patients are few, the number of people "using" CRISPR in a lab setting is massive. CRISPR-Cas9 is now the standard tool in almost every molecular biology lab in the world. From undergraduate students to senior researchers, an estimated hundreds of thousands of scientists use CRISPR to study diseases, develop drought-resistant crops, or create new materials. A major breakthrough in 2025 and early 2026 has been the rise of CRISPR-GPT and other AI tools that allow researchers with no prior gene-editing experience to design successful experiments, further expanding the number of "users" in the scientific community. While only about 1,500 people have been treated, the number of people eligible for treatment is huge. Roughly 100,000 people in the U.S. and Europe are currently eligible for the approved Casgevy treatment. If ongoing 2026 trials for cholesterol-lowering CRISPR shots are successful, the number of "users" could jump from hundreds to millions by the end of the decade.

However, in the context of our earlier discussion, the February 2026 declassified files highlight a "third category" of use: unauthorized germline editing. While the 1,500 people mentioned above were edited in a way that cannot be passed to their children (somatic editing), the FBI is currently investigating claims that Epstein funded a private lab to perform germline editing (permanent changes) on an unknown number of embryos. No official count of such "illegal users" has been confirmed. As of this week, federal investigators are using these notes to map out the "Bio-Money Trail." They are looking for a specific offshore facility referred to in the notes as the "Library." The 2026 disclosures suggest that Epstein’s "investment" in science wasn't just about prestige—it was a literal R&D project for his own DNA. ☀️