predestine

Genes do not predestine one individual to complete fewer years of schooling than another or one individual to score higher on a cognitive performance test than another.

This has diminished, though, as people have come to see that gender does not predestine character and personality.

Similarly, his playing of games such as Risk and Civilization seemed to predestine him to amass great power.

Matching wouldn’t predestine the outcome — preventing a nuclear North Korea or maintaining credibility could still be important enough to justify military action, but a decision-maker would have to directly confront the cost of what Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has said would be the “worst kind of fighting in most people’s lifetimes.”

Here is what science is highly unlikely to be able to do: genetically predestine a child’s Ivy League acceptance letter, front-load a kid with Stephen Colbert’s one-liners, or bake Beyonce’s vocal range into a baby.