Yes, organisms can and do change shape and function during lifetime. Yes, developmental processes do exist. A woman does not look like a girl, a man does not speak like a boy, a frog does not look like a tadpole and so on. There are many species in which striking changes occur during lifetime.

The only problem I see is actually designing the process, somehow inserting all the required genes in the correct places in the genome, complete with their regulatory sequences, and finally triggering the process.

In particular, the question is asking about a process of metamorphosis. Most people know about the massive changes in body shape and function which change a caterpillar into a butterfly, or a tadpole into a frog; but even we mammals go through a process of abrupt change in anatomy and function immediately after birth, when for example the cardio-vascular system is dramatically rearranged: the foramen ovale (which in fetal circulation shunts blood from the left atrium of the heart into the left atrium) closes, the ductus arteriosus (which in fetal circulation connects the pulmonary artery with the aorta, thus avoiding the entire pulmonary circulation) closes and is resorbed, the umbilical arteries and veins close and are resorbed, fetal hemoglobin (hemoglobin F) is replaced with adult hemoglobin (hemoglobin A).

The difficulty lies in engineering such a process. While we understand how some of these processes work macroscopically, and while we understand how some of these processes are triggered, we are nowhere near being able to design them. They are complicated. They are full of details. Their genetic base is poorly understood. For a simple example, we humans have both the genes to make hemoglobin A, and hemoglobin F, and various forms of embryonic hemoglobin. Which kind of hemoglobin we make at each stage in life is regulated by a genetic machinery which responds to environmental factors.

All in all, it is really really complicated. We must first design the macroscopic process: which cells need to proliferate, which cells need to die, what are their distinguishing features, how does this correlate with other biological systems. Then we must design the signalling: how is this proliferation and apoptosis directly controlled by hormonal or other signals. Then we must design the genetic base, complete with regulator genes. Then we must pack the entire genetic program in some sort of giant virus (because ordinary viruses are obviously too small), and we must add the mechanism to insert the whole thing in the right place on a chromosome.

Yes, there is nothing metaphysical in developmental processes. In the end we can imagine that at some point in the future we will be able to design complex developmental processes and somehow insert them into the genome of willing people.

Yes, organisms can and do change shape and function during lifetime. Yes, developmental processes do exist. A woman does not look like a girl, a man does not speak like a boy, a frog does not look like a tadpole and so on. There are many species in which striking changes occur during lifetime.

The only problem I see is actually designing the process, somehow inserting all the required genes in the correct places in the genome, complete with their regulatory sequences, and finally triggering the process.

In particular, the question is asking about a process of metamorphosis. Most people know about the massive changes in body shape and function which change a caterpillar into a butterfly, or a tadpole into a frog; but even we mammals go through a process of abrupt change in anatomy and function immediately after birth, when for example the cardio-vascular system is dramatically rearranged: the foramen ovale (which in fetal circulation shunts blood from the right atrium of the heart into the left atrium) closes, the ductus arteriosus (which in fetal circulation connects the pulmonary artery with the aorta, thus avoiding the entire pulmonary circulation) closes and is resorbed, the umbilical arteries and veins close and are resorbed, fetal hemoglobin (hemoglobin F) is replaced with adult hemoglobin (hemoglobin A).

The difficulty lies in engineering such a process. While we understand how some of these processes work macroscopically, and while we understand how some of these processes are triggered, we are nowhere near being able to design them. They are complicated. They are full of details. Their genetic base is poorly understood. For a simple example, we humans have both the genes to make hemoglobin A, and hemoglobin F, and various forms of embryonic hemoglobin. Which kind of hemoglobin we make at each stage in life is regulated by a genetic machinery which responds to environmental factors.

All in all, it is really really complicated. We must first design the macroscopic process: which cells need to proliferate, which cells need to die, what are their distinguishing features, how does this correlate with other biological systems. Then we must design the signalling: how is this proliferation and apoptosis directly controlled by hormonal or other signals. Then we must design the genetic base, complete with regulator genes. Then we must pack the entire genetic program in some sort of giant virus (because ordinary viruses are obviously too small), and we must add the mechanism to insert the whole thing in the right place on a chromosome.

Yes, there is nothing metaphysical in developmental processes. In the end we can imagine that at some point in the future we will be able to design complex developmental processes and somehow insert them into the genome of willing people.

Yes, organisms can and do change shape and function during lifetime. Yes, developmental processes do exist. A woman does not look like a girl, a man does not speak like a boy, a frog does not look like a tadpole and so on. There are many species in which striking changes occur during lifetime.

The only problem I see is actually designing the process, somehow inserting all the required genes in the correct places in the genome, complete with their regulatory sequences](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_sequence), and finally triggering the process.

In particular, the question is asking about a process of metamorphosis. Most people know about the massive changes in body shape and function which change a caterpillar into a butterfly, or a tadpole into a frog; but even we mammals go through a process of abrupt change in anatomy and function immediately after birth, when for example the cardio-vascular system is dramatically rearranged: the foramen ovale (which in fetal circulation shunts blood from the left atrium of the heart into the left atrium) closes, the ductus arteriosus (which in fetal circulation connects the pulmonary artery with the aorta, thus avoiding the entire pulmonary circulation) closes and is resorbed, the umbilical arteries and veins close and are resorbed, fetal hemoglobin (hemoglobin F) is replaced with adult hemoglobin (hemoglobin A).

The difficulty lies in engineering such a process. While we understand how some of these processes work macroscopically, and while we understand how some of these processes are triggered, we are nowhere near being able to design them. They are complicated. They are full of details. Their genetic base is poorly understood. For a simple example, we humans have both the genes to make hemoglobin A, and hemoglobin F, and various forms of embryonic hemoglobin. Which kind of hemoglobin we make at each stage in life is regulated by a genetic machinery which responds to environmental factors.

All in all, it is really really complicated. We must first design the macroscopic process: which cells need to proliferate, which cells need to die, what are their distinguishing features, how does this correlate with other biological systems. Then we must design the signalling: how is this proliferation and apoptosis directly controlled by hormonal or other signals. Then we must design the genetic base, complete with regulator genes. Then we must pack the entire genetic program in some sort of giant virus (because ordinary viruses are obviously too small), and we must add the mechanism to insert the whole thing in the right place on a chromosome.

Yes, there is nothing metaphysical in developmental processes. In the end we can imagine that at some point in the future we will be able to design complex developmental processes and somehow insert them into the genome of willing people.

Yes, organisms can and do change shape and function during lifetime. Yes, developmental processes do exist. A woman does not look like a girl, a man does not speak like a boy, a frog does not look like a tadpole and so on. There are many species in which striking changes occur during lifetime.

The only problem I see is actually designing the process, somehow inserting all the required genes in the correct places in the genome, complete with their regulatory sequences, and finally triggering the process.

In particular, the question is asking about a process of metamorphosis. Most people know about the massive changes in body shape and function which change a caterpillar into a butterfly, or a tadpole into a frog; but even we mammals go through a process of abrupt change in anatomy and function immediately after birth, when for example the cardio-vascular system is dramatically rearranged: the foramen ovale (which in fetal circulation shunts blood from the left atrium of the heart into the left atrium) closes, the ductus arteriosus (which in fetal circulation connects the pulmonary artery with the aorta, thus avoiding the entire pulmonary circulation) closes and is resorbed, the umbilical arteries and veins close and are resorbed, fetal hemoglobin (hemoglobin F) is replaced with adult hemoglobin (hemoglobin A).

The difficulty lies in engineering such a process. While we understand how some of these processes work macroscopically, and while we understand how some of these processes are triggered, we are nowhere near being able to design them. They are complicated. They are full of details. Their genetic base is poorly understood. For a simple example, we humans have both the genes to make hemoglobin A, and hemoglobin F, and various forms of embryonic hemoglobin. Which kind of hemoglobin we make at each stage in life is regulated by a genetic machinery which responds to environmental factors.

All in all, it is really really complicated. We must first design the macroscopic process: which cells need to proliferate, which cells need to die, what are their distinguishing features, how does this correlate with other biological systems. Then we must design the signalling: how is this proliferation and apoptosis directly controlled by hormonal or other signals. Then we must design the genetic base, complete with regulator genes. Then we must pack the entire genetic program in some sort of giant virus (because ordinary viruses are obviously too small), and we must add the mechanism to insert the whole thing in the right place on a chromosome.

Yes, there is nothing metaphysical in developmental processes. In the end we can imagine that at some point in the future we will be able to design complex developmental processes and somehow insert them into the genome of willing people.