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Very interesting concept and one I hope succeeds. I wonder if this will be a true "free for all" of any kind of enhancements or will ultimately end up with som

Very interesting concept and one I hope succeeds. I wonder if this will be a true "free for all" of any kind of enhancements or will ultimately end up with some limits as well. Keep in mind the Olympics allow things which can easily be classed as enhancements. They just have some defined level which everyone is capped at. You can frame that as safety with everything below that level as "safe" and everything above it as "unsafe" but that is ultimately just an arbitrary line. This seems like this has the ability to rapidly grow, much like it seems that MMA/UFC has eclipsed traditional boxing (I am not a fan of nor a follower of either) but it seems like the zeitgeist among those people has shifted. It doesn't help that the olympics seems to have become an absurdly large spectacle event demanding exorbitant amounts of money for the host cities with ultimately little benefit. Personally, also, the olympics has become extraordinarily difficult to watch (legally). I don't have a cable subscription. I don't want a cable subscription. I would have gladly paid a reasonable one-time fee (figure $100) to sign up for something where I could watch the olympics, but, that wasn't possible last time I tried, it was only available by subscribing to a cable tv package, which was only possible with a 1-year commit. Even if I was willing to do that, Comcast said my address was "ineligible" for self-install and so I would need to wait 2-3 weeks for a self install. The user experience here was absurdly poor. Ultimately, I think an Enhanced Games could succeed where it feels like the olympics is failing. Make it far easier on host cities, make it far easier to pay to watch, remove the ultimately arbitrary line of what is a disqualifying substance. Simple formula.

janalsncm 3y ago
Anabolic steroids is not an arbitrary category. Protein powder doesn’t give you roid rage. The world is not going to be a better place if steroids become more popular.
- AdamJacobMuller 3y ago
  Anabolic steroids is not the line though. Entirely natural substances, such as "blood doping," injecting your own stored red blood cells, is also prohibited. I'm not sure I could come up with something more natural. Meanwhile Codeine, a synthetic drug, is permitted.
  - beloch 3y ago
    Needless death for the sake of entertainment is the line. The reason why blood doping is not allowed in competitive sports is that it confers a sizable edge but carries significant risk of stroke and heart attack. If you allow it, then everyone needs to do it to be competitive, and if everyone is taking that risk, fatalities are bound to happen. Yes, many sports already carry a risk of serious injury or death. However, rules are used to mitigate and minimize the risks. While you can argue about the ethics of permitting risky sports, removing drug rules from sports is much more difficult to justify. Drug enhanced performance will not offer a spectacle to viewers that is appreciably different, but it will cause needless deaths. Thiel basically wants to build himself a gladiatorial ring. Not cool.
    - sshine 3y ago
      The cyberpunk novel has the caricature of a young guy jacked up on so many enhancements he's cut his life down to a couple of years. You get to be a living computer game character, and all you have to do is not think about the future. Living your life in the fast lane, now condoned by society.
    - AdamJacobMuller 3y ago
      > However, rules are used to mitigate and minimize the risks. Where does the rule draw that line and why is it not an arbitrary one? Why is your judgement of that line better than Peter Thiel's or the actual athletes involved judgement?
      - beloch 3y ago
        It's not my judgment, but that of the IOC, practically all existing sporting bodies, and medical doctors. The claim that the things they ban are perfectly safe is extraordinary, and cries out for extraordinary evidence.
  - huytersd 3y ago
    How could you even get caught doing blood doping?
huytersd 3y ago
It’s going to very quickly devolve into people doing incredible amounts of performance enhancing drugs to the point where you will have several high profile deaths leading up to and during the “games”. It’s going to be a hard PR and legal thing to maneuver around. I can imagine someone taking some street legal analog of PCP and absolutely ripping someone else apart during BJJ/boxing matches.
SilverBirch 3y ago
>ultimately just an arbitrary line. This is just untrue. It's not arbitrary at all, there's been a huge amount of research and work that has gone into the rules around doping in sport. There are very clear harms caused by the drugs that they ban. You're right that you have to draw the line somewhere, but the line they've drawn is far from arbitrary.

janalsncm 3y ago

Anabolic steroids is not an arbitrary category. Protein powder doesn’t give you roid rage. The world is not going to be a better place if steroids become more popular.

AdamJacobMuller 3y ago
Anabolic steroids is not the line though. Entirely natural substances, such as "blood doping," injecting your own stored red blood cells, is also prohibited. I'm not sure I could come up with something more natural. Meanwhile Codeine, a synthetic drug, is permitted.
- beloch 3y ago
  Needless death for the sake of entertainment is the line. The reason why blood doping is not allowed in competitive sports is that it confers a sizable edge but carries significant risk of stroke and heart attack. If you allow it, then everyone needs to do it to be competitive, and if everyone is taking that risk, fatalities are bound to happen. Yes, many sports already carry a risk of serious injury or death. However, rules are used to mitigate and minimize the risks. While you can argue about the ethics of permitting risky sports, removing drug rules from sports is much more difficult to justify. Drug enhanced performance will not offer a spectacle to viewers that is appreciably different, but it will cause needless deaths. Thiel basically wants to build himself a gladiatorial ring. Not cool.
  - sshine 3y ago
    The cyberpunk novel has the caricature of a young guy jacked up on so many enhancements he's cut his life down to a couple of years. You get to be a living computer game character, and all you have to do is not think about the future. Living your life in the fast lane, now condoned by society.
  - AdamJacobMuller 3y ago
    > However, rules are used to mitigate and minimize the risks. Where does the rule draw that line and why is it not an arbitrary one? Why is your judgement of that line better than Peter Thiel's or the actual athletes involved judgement?
    - beloch 3y ago
      It's not my judgment, but that of the IOC, practically all existing sporting bodies, and medical doctors. The claim that the things they ban are perfectly safe is extraordinary, and cries out for extraordinary evidence.
- huytersd 3y ago
  How could you even get caught doing blood doping?

huytersd 3y ago

It’s going to very quickly devolve into people doing incredible amounts of performance enhancing drugs to the point where you will have several high profile deaths leading up to and during the “games”. It’s going to be a hard PR and legal thing to maneuver around. I can imagine someone taking some street legal analog of PCP and absolutely ripping someone else apart during BJJ/boxing matches.

SilverBirch 3y ago

>ultimately just an arbitrary line. This is just untrue. It's not arbitrary at all, there's been a huge amount of research and work that has gone into the rules around doping in sport. There are very clear harms caused by the drugs that they ban. You're right that you have to draw the line somewhere, but the line they've drawn is far from arbitrary.