online.wsj.com/article/SB100014240527023...436601227923924.html

Whether or not to allow Mr. Pistorius to compete is no longer the issue. In 2008, he was barred from competition by the International Association of Athletics Federations. He responded by putting together an all-star team of scientists who successfully lobbied to have the decision reversed. If Mr. Pistorius can qualify (he is currently the only South African to have beaten the Olympic qualifying time of 45.30 seconds for the 400-meter), he will become the first amputee runner to compete in the Games.

The scientists convincingly argued that the advantages of Mr. Pistorius using his Cheetah blades were offset by the disadvantages of being a double amputee. But prosthetic technology is quickly improving to a point where the balance could tilt the other way. The prosthetic of tomorrow, made of advanced materials like carbon fiber and titanium and controlled by brain implants that could provide intuitive neural control, may well be a living, breathing limb, complete with a sense of touch and the ability to react intelligently to a changing environment. In the highest echelons of sports, merely "able-bodied" athletes may no longer be able to compete effectively.

Such scenarios are likely to play out in a range of fields. Some people will consider the superabled to be cheaters, using technology to break the rules. Others will see them as tenacious contenders with the audacity to overcome grave obstacles. Regardless, the world will soon bear witness to an epic realignment of the relationship between "disabled" and "abled."

I hope you've got the money ITK to keep up with the disabled, because pretty soon most of them will be looking down on the likes of you as 'mongs'...

The dissemination of advanced implantable technology will likely be just as ruthlessly democratic as the ailments it is destined to treat. Meaning that, someday soon, we may have a new class of very smart, very fast people—yesterday's disabled and elderly.

The sudden appearance of "super-abled" people could put new and unforeseen strains on our society. For example, what happens when mentally sharp, physically capable retirees return to the workforce by the millions? When your child is the only kid in her class without an implant and she has the lowest test scores to prove it, will you agree to put her under the knife? Will professional sports teams let superabled people play, or is that cheating? Would you hire one over a "regular" person? Should a person be required to reveal the presence of an implant? Or will that just open the door for discrimination?

Humanity has been co-evolving with technology for more than 100,000 years. Together with our tools, we are on a grand, generation-spanning trajectory. Whether we like it or not, the next step of this evolution is on the near horizon.

....and you point is what, exactly?

That people with motorised legs can move faster????!!!!

Hardly in the spirit of the Olympics is it? - unique individual achievement without aids - hence the nude running in the early days.

In The Know wrote:
....and you point is what, exactly?

That people with motorised legs can move faster????!!!!

Hardly in the spirit of the Olympics is it? - unique individual achievement without aids - hence the nude running in the early days.

The prosthetic of tomorrow, made of advanced materials like carbon fiber and titanium and controlled by brain implants that could provide intuitive neural control, may well be a living, breathing limb, complete with a sense of touch and the ability to react intelligently to a changing environment. In the highest echelons of sports, merely "able-bodied" athletes may no longer be able to compete effectively.

If you're looking for unique individual athletic achievement without aids, you might find that the paraolympians have less artificial drugs inside of them, as well as their performances being much less the result of millions of pounds of hi-tech computerised training systems.

Actually, though, I share your dislike at the para-olympics being shoved down our throats by the PC brigade as being somehow equal to achievements of the real olympic athletics.

But I do find it amusing the way that you use the term 'mong' to describe people who are not even intellectually disabled, but physically disabled, often through accidents. I'm not pretending to be offended on behalf of other people though.

I assume that you, like the rest of us, are getting on in years. Presumably you are slowing down, your eyesight is deteriorating etc. We all gradually become disabled at some point, even if we were lucky enough to be born healthy.

I guess the point is that this is going to change soon. Older people with money will soon be fitter, stronger, faster than the young and healthy without the money to pay for these enhancements. For example, I've just had expensive laser eye surgery. Now I have 20/15 vision - I can see better in middle-age without glasses than I could ever with glasses (which I needed since a boy). As the article explains, the present disabled will also be amongst the first to benefit from many of these new technologies. In several decades, the only 'mongs' will be the unenhanced. You might want to change your views as to what constitutes 'natural'. I'm sure the Ancient Greeks would have seized the opportunity to become Godlike if they had had the scientific capability that we will soon have.

Blackit wrote:
Actually, though, I share your dislike at the para-olympics being shoved down our throats by the PC brigade as being somehow equal to achievements of the real olympic athletics.

I'm not pretending to be offended on behalf of other people though.

You do seem rather obsessed with this subject, Blackit, which is strange when basically you agree with me !

(I do note however that it has taken you about a fortnight to find "something" to defend your stance)

As for ITK getting old ... well, yes ! The days of permanent erections are long gone !!!!

In The Know wrote:
Blackit wrote:
Actually, though, I share your dislike at the para-olympics being shoved down our throats by the PC brigade as being somehow equal to achievements of the real olympic athletics.

I'm not pretending to be offended on behalf of other people though.

You do seem rather obsessed with this subject, Blackit, which is strange when basically you agree with me !

(I do note however that it has taken you about a fortnight to find "something" to defend your stance)

As for ITK getting old ... well, yes ! The days of permanent erections are long gone !!!!

I'm interested in trans-humanism and the possibilities that even the disabled may soon be 'super'abled. I don't visit here sometimes for days.

I do agree with you ITK, although I think you might have allowed the PC brigade majority here to push you into being a little bit exaggeratedly insensitive (with the use of the 'mong' term). As I said, it's certainly no big deal to me. Perhaps there's a small chance that there is a reader here who has a close relative who is disabled and who might genuinely be offended, but I doubt if anyone would really take it seriously.

When these disabled charities throw a tantrum over the likes of Ricky Gervais saying the word mong on Twitter, all they're doing is seizing the opportunity to do a bit of collection tin rattling.