SoylentNews

Bionic Olympics to be Hosted in 2016

posted by LaminatorX on Thursday March 27 2014, @05:17PM   
from the We-have-the-technology. dept.

dotdotdot writes:

The Swiss National Competence Center of Research will host the first Cybathlon in Switzerland in October 2016. This 'Olympics for bionic athletes' will include races where competitors who are paralysed from the neck down control an avatar via a brain interface. There will also be races for those wearing arm or leg prosthetics, an exoskeleton race and a wheelchair race.

There will be two medals for each competition, one for the pilot and one for company that developed the device.

• Good idea Good idea (Score: 3, Interesting) by n1 on Thursday March 27 2014, @05:26PM

  by n1 (993) on Thursday March 27 2014, @05:26PM (#22129) Journal

  I'm not a fan of the Olympics in general, but I like the idea this kind of thing could open it up to a 'performance enhanced' Olympics. The banning of legal drugs in sports has a purpose, but it's not always relevant.

  Sports can be extremely damaging or even deadly if you're on performance enhancing substances or not. I would like to see athletes competing in a less regulated field. If we can take another second ff the 100m with the use of currently banned drugs, why shouldn't we? We use drugs to extend our lives beyond what is 'natural', why not use them improve our performance in sports?

  • Re:Good idea (Score: 1) by song-of-the-pogo on Thursday March 27 2014, @07:24PM

    by song-of-the-pogo (1315) on Thursday March 27 2014, @07:24PM (#22186) Homepage Journal

    I came here to say essentially what you said. A performance enhanced Olympics, as you put it, would be fascinating to see. What potentially useful ways of maximizing human physical potential might come out of such a thing? On the flip side, I imagine we would soon see how spectacularly wrong things could go.

    --
    "We have met the enemy and he is us."

    Parent

• Oscar Pistorius Oscar Pistorius (Score: 4, Funny) by zocalo on Thursday March 27 2014, @05:37PM

  by zocalo (302) on Thursday March 27 2014, @05:37PM (#22132)

  So... will he be competing on the track, or the firing range? /rimshot
  
  Yeah, yeah, bad taste...

  --
  UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!

  • Re:Oscar Pistorius (Score: 2) by nitehawk214 on Thursday March 27 2014, @08:14PM

    by nitehawk214 (1304) on Thursday March 27 2014, @08:14PM (#22213)

    Bionic Biathlon

    --
    "Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh

    Parent

  • Re:Oscar Pistorius (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 27 2014, @10:24PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 27 2014, @10:24PM (#22270)

    For those who have missed the story, the "Blade Runner" is currently on trial in South Africa for the handgun murder of his live-in girlfriend.

    Alternet has been covering the story. [google.com]

    -- gewg_

    Parent

• From the killer robots dept (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 27 2014, @05:42PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 27 2014, @05:42PM (#22135)

  nuff said

• Open Source Olympics (Score: 2) by dotdotdot on Thursday March 27 2014, @06:14PM

  by dotdotdot (858) on Thursday March 27 2014, @06:14PM (#22151)

  I wonder how long it will be before we have a separate Olympics (or alternative sports league) that allows all performance enhancing drug usage for the "athletes".

• Can't wait! (Score: 3, Funny) by mhajicek on Thursday March 27 2014, @06:53PM

  by mhajicek (51) on Thursday March 27 2014, @06:53PM (#22164)

  Looking forward to the weaponized class of the exoskeleton race!

  --
  The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek

• Great (Score: 1) by hamsterdan on Thursday March 27 2014, @09:57PM

  by hamsterdan (2829) on Thursday March 27 2014, @09:57PM (#22257)

  Just hope they don't cheap out on stuff

  http://zolt.wrzuta.pl/film/7mGcl1MGL6s/family_guy_ 6_million_dollar_man [wrzuta.pl]