04/18/24
April 29, 2008
Bionic athletes and the future of sports: A look at the future of sports -- a world where prosthetics can enhance athletic skill beyond current human capabilities:
When I was a kid in the seventies we talked about the day when 21st century athletes would have the advantage of internal and external prostheses. Now that we have the HGH and steroids and lasik and prosthetics that are those things we dreamt of, and that sci-fi writers wrote of, these advances we awaited are beaten back. I'm not suggesting this is a bad thing, just interesting. Maybe there needs to be a separate league where the superhumans are allowed. The purists, of which I consider myself one, would be free from congressional inspection and those who wish to see what man can do with man would be satisfied in the superhuman leagues. I'd also be interested in that.
posted by bobfoot at 10:54 PM on April 29, 2008
I agree with you captaincavegirl. I plan to research more on this topic becuase I can't understand what it means by "super-human" abilities. I guess I can imagine but I like to know facts.
posted by brandy at 10:57 PM on April 29, 2008
At least testing for bionic athletes would be easier than steroids. Just have them stand near a large magnet.
posted by Drood at 12:16 AM on April 30, 2008
you aint right drood
posted by brandy at 08:02 AM on April 30, 2008
Perhaps a multi-tiered setup is needed for competition. I'm thinking along the lines of "standard", "chemically enhanced", and prostheticly aided". Some might object to classifying athletes in this manner, but is there really any fair way of levelling the field? Of course, some just don't need a lot of help, as this article points out. (A bit lengthy, but a good read.)
posted by Howard_T at 09:14 AM on April 30, 2008
and those who wish to see what man can do with man would be satisfied Rewrite!
posted by worldcup2002 at 11:33 AM on April 30, 2008
And back on topic, I would be for bionic sports as long as we could get the metallic sound effects and slo mo every time they used their bionic sight and hearing, and while lifting, throwing, punching, jumping and running. Can I haz Steve Austin?
posted by worldcup2002 at 11:36 AM on April 30, 2008
A thought-provoking read, thanks for the post catfish. The author raises some good points but I seriously doubt that in the future athletes may choose to opt for prosthetics for a competitive edge. It will be interesting to see how the future of sports will deal with this issue. As far as I'm concerned, if the prosthetic allows athletes to compete at the level of the other competitors, great. But if their prosthetic gives them a super-human advantage (as in the case of the runner in the article) that's just not fair.