When the controversy was about Oscar Pistorius running in the Olympics, I wrote this.
Basically, that this is a slippery slope, that there will be more and more enhancements until biological, surgically unaltered, original model humans won’t be able to compete.
It’s happened sooner than I thought. At the paralympic games, he got beatby somebody with better blades. And, boy, is he pissed off.
Blade Runner II (Pistorius on the left, Oliveira on the right)
You can see video of the race here. Alan Oliveira is taller, and therefore his prosthetics were longer. Pistorius says they are beyond the legal limit. Race organizers say bullshit, they were measured before the race and there are rules about this sort of thing.
I’m a bit surprised at how quickly the slide down the slippery slope has begun, but I think this is awesome stuff. I don’t care if Pistorius is being a sore loser and a whiny, little crybaby. I don’t care if Oliveira cheated.
Cheat away, I say! Break those limits! Let the paralympics become a showplace of new, improved prosthetics. Faster! Higher! Stronger! More flexible! Let us have men on 3 meter legs and watch them dunk a few baskets. Let us have men with arms like catapults who can putt the shot into the next county. Let the tennis balls fly at speeds too fast to be tracked by our normal, human eyes, and land with pinpoint accuracy.
Such a display every four years would do more to help people with disabilities than just a fair display of athletics ever will. Or, we could still do both.
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