Rio Olympics may be the last Olympics involving pure humans. We are entering a trans-human phase, where competition among pure humans with limited capabilities will fall out of favor.
In the next few months, we will see first such competition among transhumans.
This is the future of sports! Lesser number of people watched the Olympics this time. NBC saw a double-digit decline in total viewers vs. the Games held in London just eight years ago. One of the reasons for this decline could be that Olympic games for all its glory and tradition, may appear boring to audiences, particularly millennials Nothing really exciting happens in Olympics now. Specifically, very few world records are broken.
In fact, many world records were established long back. If we move to women’s games, the story is even more dismal. I not dissing on athletes. It is just that we are reaching the limits of human ability. And the situation is not improving any time soon.
It takes a huge amount of time for humans to evolve, so the human body is not getting any better in the timescales that we have at hand Going forward, the Olympics are going to become even less exciting if they do not change. In the future, we will witness more blend of sports and technology What I am talking about here is called transhumanism, something that you probably have only seen in the Marvel Production movies.
Transhumanism is a theory that the human race can evolve beyond its current physical and mental limitations, especially by means of science and technology. In the future sporting events, athletes would be geared with capabilities beyond human limits using technology. Something similar to superheroes like Ironman, Captain America, Black Widow, Hulk, Thor, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, and QuickSilver. Specifically, future games would be overhauled with advanced sensor-driven machinery, wireless powered devices, bionics, cyborgs, and whatnot. Some of this technology is already out.
PatentYogi research team dug into the patent databases to find out more about technology that is still under development. Patents give us insights into technology much before it actually makes it to the market. Powered exoskeletons would be the biggest game-changer technology in future games.
Basically, it is just like an Iron Man suit. Many companies are developing exoskeletons. MIT has filed many patents for exoskeletons that may be operated to walk and run efficiently. The futuristic Olympic Games will showcase the athletes breaking the age-old records in the formats like discus throw, shot put, and long jump. Exoskeletons enhance the athlete’s overall physical strength.
Weightlifting would witness a competition among humans with huge strength like Hulk or Superman. In fact, weightlifters may also be allowed to use anabolic steroids, performance-enhancing drugs, bone strengtheners, and epinephrine injections. Technologies like bionic eyes and telescopic lens will provide supernatural eyesight to the archers and shooters.
Currently, these lenses help the lens-wearer to attain eyesight which may be 3 times sharper than the normal human’s eyesight. This will help the archers and shooters aim for the significantly longer distances with extreme precision. Swimmers may be injected with oxygen-filled microparticles to oxygenate the swimmer for a significant amount of time.
This technological advancement would transform the current swimming format into an underwater swimming competition. Underwater swimming is faster is mostly swimming on the surface. Many new games could be introduced like drone racing. or a robot boxing event, where robots are controlled by humans.
In the future, the Olympic Games would be much more interesting, thrilling, and entertaining than a two-hour action-packed sci-fi thriller movie Are you ready to witness the action-packed sporting performance? In October 2016, we will get a teaser trailer of future Olympics in Cybathlon, which is an international competition organized by ETH Zurich for disabled athletes using bionic assistive technology, such as robotic prostheses, brain-computer interfaces, and powered exoskeletons.
The athletes with varied abilities will participate in various Cybathlon events such as Functional Electrical Simulation Bike Race, Brain-Computer Interface Race, Powered Arm / Leg Prosthesis Race, Powered Exoskeleton Race, and Powered Wheelchair Race. Then around December 2017, in Dubai, the premier futuristic sporting event will be revealed where automated and controlled robots or machines will be competing rather than the human athletes. This event will showcase futuristic competitions such as manned and unmanned drone racing, robotic soccer, driverless car racing, and cyber-athlete competitions.