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How Long Until the Cyborg Olympics Are Better Than the Traditional Games? (ieee.org)
the_newsbeagle writes: In October 2016, a stadium in Zurich will host the world's first cyborg Olympics. During this event, more officially called the Cybathlon, people with disabilities will use advanced technologies such as exoskeletons and powered prosthetic limbs to compete in the games. This article chronicles one team's training for the bicycle race, where the athletes will be people with paralyzed legs. The team is composed of the paralyzed biker who has an electrical stimulation system implanted in his body, and the engineers who built the gear that energizes his nerves and muscles.
I have ocular implants and adjustable, augmented hearing. Is that enough to make me a cyborg? If not, why not, and how much more would it take?
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All depends on how you define "better". Faster, further, higher? Soonish, if events are exact same-same. Some events like trap shooting a disability may not matter - I've seen a guy in a wheel chair keep up with the pros. Some like perhaps the high jump I'd almost expect them to do it kinda soonish - it becomes a matter of engineering. If you look at Olympic vs. Paralympic record - I picked 200m men's sprint - you can see some times that are getting *very* close to Usian Bolt's 9.30 second time from the 2008 games.
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
The olympics are the single most boring events out there. This is just slightly more interesting.
This. Most Olympic sports don't have much strategy to them. A lot of them are in part a question of who has the best unfair evolutionary advantage (how big are your feet, Australian Swimmer), in part a question of how much money you have for your coach (hi, rich kids!), in part a question of how much your country is willing to lie (Weren't the Chinese Gymnasts too young to compete last time, or something like that?), and in part a question of how good you are at not having your drugs detected (hello, Lance Armstrong). And don't forget the politics where judges select people not based on their ability or grace, but based on their personal resentment of the politics symbolized by the person being judged (hello, figure skating).
Some people enjoy it, but lets not pretend its some pinnacle of human accomplishment, ideal competition, or... interesting television.
Given how commercialized and tied up in monopolies the traditional games are, isn't trying to be better than the tradional games setting the bar pretty low?