Modern transhumanists can be remarkably absurd. Case in point: the Enhanced Games. Peter Thiel and two other venture capitalists, Christian Angermayer and Balaji Srinivasan, are now funding “the Olympics of the future.” The president of this operation is Aron D’Souza, whose chief claim to fame, according to his bio, is that he “Led Peter Thiel’s Successful Litigation Against Gawker Media.
The actually existing Olympic Games have come under criticism for decades now, for political reasons, for exorbitant ticket prices, for corruption, for scandals the press loves to revisit (top 8; top 10; top 12; even top 44), and of course for the reportedly widespread use of performance-enhancing drugs. Anabolic steroids, human growth hormone, diuretics, stimulants, and more are banned by the Olympics, as well as by most sporting institutions and governments, for one very good reason: They harm people.
The Enhanced Games “formally recognizes any and all world records challenged by the World Anti-Doping Agency and reinstates them as Enhanced World Records.” Strangely, some of the athletic “records” they include are in fact slower than the generally accepted version.
…
Transhumanist fantasies fuel the escapades of billionaires and the dreams of people for whom reality is simply not enough.