Blade Runner

02007-07-20 | Uncategorized | 1 comment

Open the Future: Blade Runner
Oscar Pistorius is the South African sprinter I mentioned in my piece The Accidental Cyborg – a world-class runner who happens to have artificial lower legs and feet. Because of the shape of the carbon fiber prosthetics, his nickname is now “Blade Runner.”

And

FT.com / Arts & Weekend / Sport – ‘Blade Runner’ finds controversy at every step
Pistorius argues that bio-mechanical tests prove that the blades provide no more “return” from the track than legs. Accordingly, IAAF officials have given him and themselves a period of grace for reflection, during which time he is being allowed to compete in his first open races outside South Africa.

Should one have two Olympics… a traveling show that opens every four years in a different city where anything goes, from doping to artificial limbs to genetic enhancements to nano tech – the olympics already allow trigger-releases for archery, considered blasphemy by some – and traditional olympic games, held in Greece, where no enhancement of any kind is allowed? No, I am afraid that won’t work. It seems to me that the wrangling over what should and should not be admissible is an important part of how our culture “digests” the possibilities and sets a course.

1 Comment

  1. Panj

    Yup!

    Reply

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