Transhumanism and the Olympics
May 19, 2008 by UltraFuture
Maintaining a ‘level’ playing field in competitive sport becomes increasingly complex as technological advances provide athletes with superior training methods, equipment, supplements (dietary or otherwise) and enhancements. Equipment such as biomimetically designed swimming suits, for example, are monitored and regulated with increasing precision. In a landmark ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, 21 year old South African athlete Oscar Pistorius was approved to compete in Olympic Games against able-bodied athletes. The ‘Bladerunner’ (nicknamed after the carbon-fibre prosthetics he uses in place of his amputated lower legs) plans to compete in either the Beijing Olympics or London Olympics in 2012. As a result of the ruling, much debate has ensued around questions of fairness, equality and the ‘purity’ of sport.
While anabolic steroids and other doping techniques are widely deemed to be unfair in Olympic competition, we have unquestionably reached a turning point in prosthetic medical science when a ‘disabled’ athlete is perceived as having a potentially unfair advantage over able-bodied (read species-typical) competitors.
Developments in science and technology lead to products that alter the nature of competition in existing sports and often spawn the creation of new sports. These developments also influence social attitudes and values. Enhancements and modifications of athletes bodies and their equipment affect performance capabilities, competitive pressure and societal expectations.
Many modern internal and external enhancements of the human body go beyond the ’species-typical’. Whether undergoing plastic surgery aimed at improving physical attractiveness, or anabolic steroids aimed at improving physical size and power, these enhancements and their undeniable impact on performance lead to a culture of increasing demand and paradoxically enable cultures of both acceptance and rejection.
These improvements of the human body (structural, functional, abilities) bring us beyond our species-typical limits. This contributes to the development of new social concepts such as transhumanism, a concept based on the idea that the human species in its current form does not represent the end of our development but rather a comparatively early phase - and the desirability of fundamentally improving the human condition through applied reason, especially by developing and making widely available technologies to eliminate aging and to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities. The transhumanisation of ableism,which is the set of beliefs, processes and practices that perceive the improvement of human body abilities beyond typical Homo sapiens boundaries as essential to our continued evolution and even survival is another consequence.
While many argue that ‘unfair’ financial and technical advantages have long been a reality of Olympic competition, it is nonetheless understandable to feel some nostalgia for the noble notion of purity in amateur sport. However, a scenario where we strictly mandate a ‘pure’ Olympics only for species-typical, able-bodied athletes, for example, calls to mind scenes from The Chrysalids or the X-Men series of comics. The current trajectory of medical and technical developments (on the way to Kurzweils ‘Singularity’?) will undoubtedly see drastic and numerous improvements in prosthetics, nutrition, doping and even cybernetics. How do we monitor, regulate and decide which of these advancements is acceptable? In the X-Men stories, many ’species-typical’ (normal) humans exhibit fear and distrust of Homo superior (often used in reference to mutants), who are regarded by a number of scientists as the next step in human evolution and are thus widely viewed as a threat to human civilizations.
While Oscar Pistorius’s prosthetics were orginally used to replace his missing lower legs, voluntary augmentations or alterations may reasonably proliferate if world-class performance (and its rewards) are on the table. It is both fascinating and, admittedly, frightening to extrapolate from the case of Oscar Pistorius and imagine an UltraFuture where Homo superior athletes compete at levels far beyond the capabilities of todays able-bodied sports stars. Indeed, it is both fascinating and frightening to imagine a future where transhumanists, cyborgs and other supra-human entities walk the streets and live and work together with us in notable numbers.
What percentage of people around the world today have had cosmetic surgery? Have had re-constructive or use prosthetic limbs? Take drugs or supplements that improve their physical, emotional or mental performance? Utilize machines, electronics or other devices that give them a decisive advantage in improving their physical health or financial wealth?
How advanced and widespread will these technologies be in 30 years?
Footnotes
i. World Transhumanist Association, “The Transhumanist FAQ “ A General Introduction“ Version 2.1″, (2003) available at: http://www.transhumanism.org/index.php/WTA/faq21/46/
ii. Ibid
iii. See: G Wolbring, “Glossary for the 21st Century”, International Center for Bioethics, Culture and Disability (2007) available at: http://www.bioethicsanddisability.org/glossary.htm; G Wolbring, “Why NBIC? Why human performace enchancment?”, (2008) 21 (1) Innovation; The European Journal of Social Science Research 25-40; “NBICS, other convergences, ableism and the culture of peace”, G Wolbring, Innovationwatch.com, 15 Apr 2007, available at: http://www.innovationwatch.com/choiceisyours/choiceisyours-2007-04-15.htm; G Wolbring, “New and Emerging Sciences and Technologies, Ableism, Transhumanism and Religion, Faith, Theology and Churches” (2007) 7 Madang; International Journal of Contextual Theology in East Asia, 79.
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[...] few months ago, UltraFuture wrote an article exploring Oscar Pistorius’ participation in the Olympics and extrapolated some transhumanistic scenarios. In the following [...]
Transhumanism and the Olympics | UltraFuture…
Maintaining a ‘level’ playing field in competitive sport becomes increasingly complex as technological advances provide athletes with superior training methods, equipment, supplements (dietary or otherwise) and enhancements….
We are becoming a new species, we are becoming Homo Evolutis