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An Olympic Games For Enhanced Athletes?
ananyo writes "With the Olympics due to kick off on 27 July in London, Nature has taken a look at how far science would be able to push human athletic abilities if all restrictions on doping were lifted. The article mentions anabolic steroids (up to 38% increase in strength), IGF-1 (4% increase in sprinting capacity), EPO/blood doping (34% increase in stamina), gene doping and various drugs and supplements, as well as more 'extreme' measures such as surgery and prosthesis. Hugh Herr, a biomechanical engineer at MIT, says performance-enhancing technologies will one day demand an Olympics all their own. But is that time already upon us?"
Mad Magazine had this a long time ago. Pretty funny.
I'd love to watch this! :3
The point of sport is exercising your body for the fun and health benefits. What is the point to kill yourself with drugs and supplements?
I've wondered what F1 would be like without all the restrictions. Modifying humans to this extreme is probably going to have unforeseen consequences in the long term. However with F1, if you were to take out the human element and have AI or remote control, you needn't worry about human safety and could lift all sorts of restrictions, allowing R+D budgets to be spent on whole new automotive areas.
We can already make a "Robot's Olympics". Isn't auto racing just enhanced human racing?
Some people would tune in to see the products that are being advertised. If the "Runalong 6000" leg prosthetic beats the "Leapfrog 200", I might be interested if I'm in the market for my own enhancement.
All ideas^H^H^H^H^Hprocesses in this post are Patent Pending. (as well as the process of patenting all postings)
It's their choice, not yours, and certainly not government's. If the NFL decided to allow doping, there's nothing wrong or immoral about it. If the fans don't appreciate it, they will suffer the consequences. What's immoral is when government steps in with coercion and attacks voluntary association (i.e. what happens in the absence of government).
Unless they want to die at 35 of a cancer or something, I wouldn't advise it.
One of the reason those kind of things are banned is because they are dangerous
Poor Little Tink Tink
linky...
Maybe not an Olympics, but competition with lower drug standard - almost guaranteed at some point ... like WWE, bodybuilding or MMA all have a niche
But just like Boxing still has a prestige in the world of MMA/UFC, the Olympics will always have a place. I see 2 scenarios:
1. we are probably better placed in drug testing than at any time in the last 40 years so we continue to go down that path
2. the drugs out-perform the testing and some events become farcical (eg 100m sprint is getting there!) whilst other events grow in prestige (eg 400m where never strength nor endurance alone is enough and it is likely to stay cleaner)
I can't watch this at work, but is this the "All Drugs Olympics"? Where the weightlifter's arms fall off while going for a world record?
When I was a kid back in the '80s, I made a fake newspaper with geoPublish, a desktop publishing program on the C64. It was about cyborgs demanding their own Olympics... I just re-read it and it's cringe inducingly awful, but I like to think I thought of this first!
Mostly random stuff.
And then we won't have athletes representing countries any more, but drug companies.
"Well, GlaxoSmithKline are looking great, taking home four gold medals, two silvers and five bronzes so far. This is sure to push their stock price up substantially for the coming year."
Did not RTFA.
as well as more 'extreme' measures such as surgery and prosthesis.
Id just bring a fucking motorbike to the race.
Freakshows with a lifespan of 30 years wouldn't be the best way to do that.
... Just like major league baseball.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
The idea of athletic competition is to hone the mind and body to win. Yes, there are genetic aberrations, but this natural and normal.
But when you make the competition about the tech, there is no human element in the drama. The human does not even matter. Only the tech does.
Except for the fact that you are talking about horrible consequences for the human lab rat in the equation with any cutting edge biotech.
So you have:
1. no human drama. it's about the tech. race robots or cars or boats instead
2. destroyed human bodies. the price is too high
Are we going back to the gladiator days of Rome next? Why don't we do that? Because in modern civilization we are suppose to have some morality and decency about what we consider fair game for spectacle.
The Olympics is primarily entertainment. Nothing justifies a Hunger Games disregard for the health of the competitors in an effort to create diversion. To cram cutting edge biotech into the human body, with unknown consequences is a dystopian, amoral, and frankly, evil suggestion.
So we will simply have to safeguard against human biotech mods in normal Olympics competition forever. It won't be easy, there will be cheats that get through against all best possible effort. And this is as good as it can or should ever get.
To cross that threshold into accepting body mods is to accept destroyed human bodies for the sake of entertainment. Not going to happen in a moral world.
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Olympia has long since ceased to be a sports event. This is entertainment delivered by modern day gladiators who sacrifice health and life in a quest for money and immoratility through fame.....
I can't wait for the one man three legged race.
As Bob Page says, "their... ethical inflexibility has allowed us to make progress in areas they refuse to consider." (a quote from the opening of Deus Ex that has stayed with me over the years). As a side note, the military has been using performance-enhancing drugs like dextroamphetamine for decades so in a way there is nothing new here. When it comes down to the crunch, humans will use any enhancement they can get their hands on. Competition driving technological development.
When we have the technology, we've the desire to test it out, see what it can do, see what its effects are. From a purely practical standpoint this would be the driving reason -why-. Much like how in racing, it isn't just skill, it's also the engineering that is being tested.
This may sound strangely immoral, and I agree the morals can be debated, but I don't think the answers will turn out to be as simple as 'doping is always wrong' (queue controversial studies about caffeine and athleticism) or alternately 'well the athletes are consenting' (when you factor in potential societal pressures, long term side effects and other things--for example fighting in hockey is always under debate, as it is an expectation from some of the fans, but is over time being documented as causing a lot of harm both physically and psychologically to the players, aka the hockey suicides over the past couple years).
"The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place." George Bernard Shaw
and put them down.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAXo3Wr_nYU
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
Top-level elite athletes are already genetic outliers who have also benefitted from good fortune in early training and nutrition and, typically, tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of targetted training.
It's not just a matter of will power or clever training schedules. It matters not how strong be my willpower, or how dedicated my training: I will never be an olympic-class athlete.
Bring on the drugs, and the treatments. It would make elite sport more equitable, and further, the medical risks taken by those with the burning desire to compete at any cost will allow the greater majority of people to benefit from enhancements with more safety.
If this idea is even slightly feasible, then the Olympics is not the starting grounds for it. Getting the countries of the world to agree on that? Non-prescription steroids are not even legal in a lot of countries. Let's try a small enhanced league in Amsterdam first.
Adidas To Bring Back Sneakernet
We probably won't have to make the choice ourselves.
Just maintain the status quo until JC Denton infiltrates the WADA HQ and, with superhuman precision, assassinates the entire Executive Committee and Foundation Board. At that point, we'll know that it's time to hand the Paralympic Games over to the unaugmented humans and leave the serious competition to the cyborgs....
I take a drug daily(prescribed by a doctor) that measurably improves the quality of my life and the length of it. It also improves my performance in some physical tests.
Throw in some eugenics, mix in a few Nazi-type experiments and we are off to a brave new world. Aldous would be so proud.
Achilles's Choice by Larry Niven (of RingWorld's fame).
Non-Linux Penguins ?
Sportsmanship? Camaraderie? No, and no.
The Olympics is about making money. If letting artificially enhanced athletes on the field will sell more coca-cola and big macs, it will eventually be allowed.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
There shouldn't be a lot of rules about what is and isn't allowed in such an Olympics, but i think the #1 rule ought to be "No strap-ons" unless specifically allowed by the particular event. By which i mean no strapping on an exoskeleton just before the even, racing to the finish line, then taking it off again.
If they want to get extra servos surgically implanted in their legs, or replace their legs completely with something mechanical that they have to deal with in their day to day life, that's fine. But as soon as you start allowing temporary attachments you're going to get into arguments about why an exoskeleton should be allowed and a motorcycle or car or jet plane shouldn't. And although it would be great for a couple events where it's specifically allowed i don't think you'd want _every_ event to devolve into who can come up with the biggest, strongest, fastest set of Starship Troopers/MechWarrior armor.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
What about the children who roid up and still dont make it?
Will we want ALL the high school athelete wanna bes taking all sorts of drugs?
And so the birth of the Juicer beings :) ... they'll have to make sure they get hefty contracts as that eight-year life span (burn-out) can be a bitch and you want to make sure you party it up before you burn-out.
Now when does the Glitterboy get introduced?
"Curiouser and Curiouser...." -Alice
In the Ukraine, they have two weightlifting leagues: the standard one, where you're allowed to take steroids, and the natural league, where you're allowed to take the expensive steroids that don't show up during testing.
This could have a negative impact on high school and collegiate sports that have similar options in the Olympics (e.g. Swimming, Track & Field, etc). These athletes could chose to simply dope up in their teens then if they get caught/banned, they at least have a financial avenue which is these Super Olympics. The financial avenue would derive from endorsement contracts which could end up in the six or seven figures depending on televsion ratings, etc.
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I have been dreaming of a real rollerball/speedball circuit since I was a little child. Of course it should have steroids!
"A novel approach to enhancing athletic performance in an officially sanctioned, augmentation supported sporting event"
This year a runner using artificial "spring-type" running legs will be allowed to compete in the regular Olympics, against runners whose only artificial advantage over what mother nature gave them is their shoes.
While I have sympathy with athletes who have lost their legs, running with artificial legs is a qualitatively different sport than running with natural legs. We have no way of knowing if this athlete is at a disadvantage, at an advantage, or on par with the athlete that he would have been if he had natural legs and underwent comparably rigorous training. If we KNEW he was on par, then I can see letting him compete. If we KNEW he was at a disadvantage, I can see letting him "compete up." If we KNEW he had an advantage from the artificial legs, then he should not be allowed to compete in the regular races, but "natural-leg" athletes should be able to "compete up" in a race designed for people with legs like he has.
Since we don't - and probably can't - know for certain, any race that he medals in will be under a cloud, the other top-4 finishers will be wondering "what if he hadn't lost his legs, would he still have run as fast?"
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
The anti doping measures are a joke.
At some point I was thinking that they might as well let people dope up all they want, but as it has been already said here:
-It's going to become a "who has better pharmaceuticals" competition
-It gives a bad example/goals to youths
-Leads to abuse/misuse...health problems.
Problem is, it's already there.
I see middle-aged guys playing garage league hockey that take ephedrin during games, misuse creatine, etc.
Why? it's there, everybody does it...
All in all, I think sports has taken a too big place in our lives, and I dont mean playing sports to keep fit, I mean the industry and the money involved, the fanboyism. All the pro sports people are idolized and millionaires, but they'll never cure cancer or discover something to benefit humanity. "Bread and games" has been around for too long, it's time to wake up.
The only place I thought performance enhancing drugs could be benefitted from is in the military, but as a country not at war, I fear what happens to soldiers all doped up and in roid rage when they go home to their families, or go out in gang to have a (fuckton of ) beer...
You need to use just the right long-term dosage that your athlete has a chance of completing an Olympics season in top condition before dying of organ failure.
Posting anonymously because I already moderated, but I don't think you're far from the truth. It wouldn't be about human endeavor, but about advances in pharmaceuticals and technology. Athletic meets and sporting events would become trade exhibitions for the corporations to show off their wares.
Wait, isn't that what the Special Olympics are for? I know a lot of those athletes are enhanced with an extra chromosome, and others are bionic.
Try "I Robot" by Isaac Asimov (1950). Some Science fiction writings dating back to the nineteenth century also covered robots however I am not sure they demanded their own Olympics, although some writers had them trying to take over the earth.
Precisely on the topic of technical enhancements for humans in sports is the novel "Limbo" by Bernard Wolfe from 1952. Well worth a read. It starts with small enhancements for small advantages in sport competitions. In the end of the novel, as far as I can recall, it was highly fashionable (even for couch potatoes) to replace every limb, and those who preferred to keep their bodies unchanged were so old-skool. I remember that it was quite disturbing when I read it.
I found the book in a drawer when they gave me a desk at the university. Thanks to the unknown donator.
Say out loud: I'm an Aspie and I'm somewhat proud, I guess. Uh. Can I write an email in all caps instead? Hm...
I'd be more interested in seeing an Olympics for non-enhanced athletes.... ones that eat only natural foods raised organically and only water, no prepackaged energy crap. And their training would have zero carbon footprint... no machines, no electronic monitoring.
That's the real test of what the human body can do.... everything else is artificial.
The 2012 Tour de France
I like the Stock vs Open analogy. NASCAR, Indy, Formula1, NHRA have it right.
There are rules for different classes of racers (athletes). Stock is very strictly controlled where as Open allows for major modification.
The "professional" sports are really "professional athletic entertainment". Conversely the Olympics are the best "amateurs" - at least until the 1990s when they opened the sports up to the "Dream Team" professionals.
The Olympics can pretend all day long that they are serious about drug enhanced performance, but if they want to prove it then get ride of the professionals. Take away the money and you're left with those fighting for the podium, which there will continue to be cheaters, but at least you're getting rid of those who are making a living off of cheating.
These pros have their venues - and those who want to compete in a clean environment should have the Olympics.
-CF
It's already the case that one has to train roughly 7 days a week, 10+ hours per day for about 10 or more years to even be able to ENTER the Olympics, never mind winning a gold medal. The suggestion that a person might one day have to have surgery, drug injections, and so on just to compete in an international games festival is sickening to me. Yes, some Olympic athletes already do this--probably because they're short-sighted, excessively "driven," and/or stupid. That still doesn't make it "right."
I realize that it's technologically interesting (and hence /. news), but I REALLY hope this never truly comes to pass. Sports just aren't worth such abuse to a person's body (or the gajillions of dollars spent on the Olympics, for that matter...but that's another topic). I have trouble justifying such human abuses as the Games already cause to young athletes (resulting in such things as sterility in women, irregular bone growth, joint problems later in life, etc.). Why on Earth would we want to add to that?
I guess this is where we'll see how obsessed with technology and sports the world really is...
Like "unlimited" racing - nobody will care (take on Stinger missiles in the 1/4 mile, anyone?)
The auto racing that is popular is all rule bound, winning isn't about building the fastest car, it's about building and driving the fastest car within the rules.
Having to choose a sport based on a '70 sci-fi drama I like one not based on the six million dollar man and bionic woman, but one based on Knight Rider. It should be like DTM tournament but the circut must have a ramp and it's mandatory at least one ramp jumping during the race and a moving red light on the bonnet is mandatory. Winning cars should also be able to answer to interviews with witty comments.
The "Olympic For Enhanced Athletes" already exists. It's simply known as the Olympics.
Performance-enhancing drugs are so sophisticated these days that it's quite easy to get around testing without being detected, (as long as you stop taking it long enough beforehand)
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/hl-50031179/saturday_night_live_update_all_drug_olympics_season_14/
Phil Hartman was great!
Anabolic steriods, growth hormone, aramatase inhibitors, clenbuterol, and other drugs. At one time even caffeine was banned (> 200 mg). What we really need is testing with teeth in it and the public to embrace natural athletes. As a retired athlete, when I competed, people wanted more and if it meant taking drugs, so be it.
In running Florence Griffith Joyner pushed herself so hard, she died before age 40.
According to Wiki she died due to a congenital brain defect.
Ok, so we still haven't decriminalized mere possession of marijuana for personal consumption, but since there's money to be made by big corporations we want to not only allow but encourage the use of performance enhancing drugs in sports? How long before steroids becomes mandatory for junior high football? Those games bring a lot of money in to those schools. Think of the tax burden on the top 10 percent of earners pay 70.42 percent of the taxes. They're taxed enough already! Steroids for kids could boost attendance at these events, drive up ticket prices, fund the schools and reduce the tax burden.
Let's start making genetically, superior humans. I'm sure absolutely no wrong could come of that. No way would some super jock snap his wife's neck like a twig when he finds her cheating on him with a cyber jock. I'm assuming in this retarded fantasy world of unethical stupidity they will be on rival teams.
Defender of Microsoft and Communism!!!
It's called the "Special Olympics".
No, seriously. Ever tried to run against an amputee with specialized running limbs? Sure, he can barely stand upright once the race is over, but you'll have a VERY hard time coming even close to his time. I dimly remember an article on /. a while (year?) ago where an athlete complained that he may not compete in the Olympics because he is "handicapped". The reason? He was too "advanced", his artificial limbs were actually BETTER suited to the sport he wanted to compete in than the real limbs.
We are at the point where some prosthetics are superior to our natural limbs for some very specialized applications.
The question is now, how badly do some people want to win? Would they replace healthy limbs with artificial counterparts if they are superior for the sport they want to win in if it was allowed? And if, should we actually support such a thing? Personally, I think some competitive sports are already damaging enough as it is. I mean, be honest, can lifting over 500 pounds above your head be healthy? Or getting hit in your face over and over?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Make the Olympics a year-long event. Would-be Olympians pre-qualify, (prove they are of Olympic caliber when they show up,) then are sequestered for a year prior the events, during which time they focus on training. They are not allowed to bring ANYTHING with them, all clothing, training supplies, etc., are provided by the Olympic Federation. (If there is currently no such thing, this idea would necessitate the formation of a club of sorts, that works hand in hand with the IOC, to ensure no cheating, etc.) Any athlete who leaves forfeits his or her or its (don't want to exclude anyone...) opportunity to participate in that Olympic Games. They should view it as like flying to the moon.
All athletes would train together at least half the time, without regard to team they're playing for, or national origin. The idea here is to foster sportsmanship, and the idea that wherever you're from and whomever you represent, we, humanity are a single species, one team, with the same common enemies, whoever we are... those of sloth, greed, narcissism, intellectual laziness to outright stupidity, racism, irrational hatred and fear, etc. Then they can through their shining examples, entertain and inspire the world.
I'm confident that sequestering (essentially jailing them, in a sense) a year before the ACTUAL games begin, keeping drugs, etc. out, and athletes from sneaking off to take them, would be enough time to ensure no one has any performance enhancing substances, etc., to give an unfair advantage versus the other Olympians. If it turns out a year is either way too long, or not enough, adjust it so that it is.
*** However, speaking to the topic at hand... ***
As for athletes or are enhanced through non-chemical means, either as a result of an actual accident, or congenital/birth defect, or who voluntarily get modified to give them an edge, either way should be in the SPECIAL OLYMPICS. Understanding that "Special" isn't a euphemism for "retarded", it refers to a group that is held apart for some reason, that they fall outside the bell-curve in some significant way, and therefore must be considered separately.
The Special Olympics should have a separate category for those who are special because they have the Olympic spirit, but who are disabled or crippled in some way, and another for those who because of aforementioned circumstances, would actually OUTPERFORM non-modified Olympic athletes.
Now before you scoff, hear me out... this would tend to add legitimacy as a sport, to the Special Olympics, and change the perception of their games to one worthy of watching even if you AREN'T handicapped or have a handicapped person in the family. It would give the Special Olympics a chance to be seen as more than a reassuring pat on the head to little retarded children, validating their often lonely, isolated lives. It would put it on a par with the ACTUAL Olympics, and at the same time not force Olympic athletes to compete with people who might actually have an unfair edge. For example, if I cut my legs off just below the knees, and have aluminum/carbon fiber pieces put on that end up making me taller, and lighter, I could probably run faster than I can now. (Especially since my current running efforts are hampered by the fact that I have shin-splints, a painful condition that is aggravated every time I run...) which means any person who might have been an Olympic runner would LIKEWISE have an unfair advantage versus someone who was formerly identical to him.
Making amputees (for example,) feel better by allowing them to compete is NOT the answer, it only detracts from the games. To put it another way, since I have shin-splints, (technically a disability,) I should be allowed to use MY prosthetic device, (a Cannondale bicycle) to compete in Olympic track and field. I would probably take the gold in almost all the running events, (obviously excluding anything with hurdles... I'm good, but not that good)! My top speed on the bike on flat-level ground with no wind is upwards of 35 miles
Might as well go all the way in allow robots to compete too.... Its about that time for CarWars to start anyways...
If someone wants to juice up or use other substances to make themselves bigger, stronger or faster, go for it. Hell, open up the Olympics to them. Steroids and HGH have severe hormonal effects and can kill the thyroid. The fast increase in muscle mass does irreversible long-term damage to the ligaments and tendons; it also damages the heart. The kidneys get shot from all the supplements which are filtered through them, as is the liver. Finally, if you jack up the metabolism too high, it's like running a car at high speed too long. It's gonna wear out faster.
Which is fine by me! True evolution is not the strongest surviving, but those who stay under the radar, have genetic diversity, and pass that diversity on. Hard to do that with testicles fried into non-existence or ovaries shot from "enhancement."
I want a piece of the bookmaking operations, betting on which of these "enhanced" athletes will die during competition.
This will be FAR better than professional rasslin'!
could be considered "enhanced amateurs"?
i like the info for more info go on http://bit.ly/JKg6Sr
The London Olympics 2012 is about 2 weeks to come but even this does not stop the diehard fans from discussions and speculations of the competitions and winners of different events. London has been chosen among 4 fantastic cities of the world to host the Olympics this year. The city had previously hosted the games in 1908 and 1948 also and it is a record third time that a city would be hosting the Olympic Games.