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Comment by dotnet00 | Hacker News Reader

You say that as if this has happened before ("many kinds of these inventions always start as..."), but what conditions have actually had this happen?

I can't think of anything that started as something to help bring people up to a median level, to then end up bringing median people into a super-human level. Everything we've done so far have all been ultimately limited by the human body, so things that bring people up to the median level ultimately have diminishing returns such that they don't benefit median people so much.

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Think of e.g. the development of optics that brought us the eyeglasses first, and the telescopic sight on a sniper rifle second. Now imagine an army of median humans that need to fight the army of genetically-modified humans that can see in the dark.

steroids

Most, even in the presented example of the olympics aren't having to compete against those on steroids though?

It's hard to know how many people are getting away with cheating. I'm more familiar with it in the context of cycling, where performance-enhancing drugs have long been a thorny issue.

> In 2004, 4.6% of the anti-doping samples tested were positive, and that is taking into account that there were many dopers who never tested positive.

https://lanternerouge.com/2023/03/26/how-clean-is-cycling-an...

Most people are competing against people on steroids. They’re incredibly common.

Breast augmentation could be one case.

Haha I guess that might technically fit.

You could say the same for plastic surgery in general. Techniques developed to restore injured faces (e.g. of soldiers) are now used for cosmetic purposes.

Implants, prosthetics, and exo-skeletons?

Which implants and prosthetics currently exist that are such that a median person would want them and as a result would become super-human?

As was mentioned in another comment, breast augmentation and other forms of body modification in the context of influencers, broadcasters, actors, models, etc.

Prosthetics may not quite be there yet, but do you seriously think they won't get there?

Military is actively investing in exoskeleton R&D. Whether it's currently accessible to the median person is sort of besides the point.

Re-read my comment, I haven't said anything about the future. My point was just that it seems weird to talk about it as if it has already happened.

It might happen in the future, but it's worth considering that a powerful prosthetic limb or exoskeleton that is superior to the biological version in every way makes both the disabled person and the perfectly healthy person equally superhuman.

I re-read your comment, but I still disagree that the evidence provided by myself and others in response, as well as evident near-term future advancements, are irrelevant to the comment you responded to.

> a powerful prosthetic limb or exoskeleton that is superior to the biological version in every way makes both the disabled person and the perfectly healthy person equally superhuman.

I think I'm not following, or else failing to see the relevance to this comment. This is essentially what the GP was getting at: these advancements can/will lead to anatomically "correct" humans failing to compete.

>I think I'm not following, or else failing to see the relevance to this comment. This is essentially what the GP was getting at: these advancements can/will lead to anatomically "correct" humans failing to compete.

I suppose this is just down to interpretation/point of focus.

I was focusing on the 'levels' being referenced. A 'perfect' prosthetic allows all people to be able to reach the same level, while the GP was talking about things that bring below median people to median level only, and previously median people to super-human level.

If we interpret this to refer to competition against people who aren't using any augmentation, it covers even just the act of practicing. Which in my opinion, kind of defeats their point by making it excessively broad.

> it covers even just the act of practicing

Imagine that a gene modification is discovered that allows a significant breakthrough in human memory. First, people with Alzheimer would undergo that treatment, to the cheers and applauds of virtually everyone (including me and you). Then the people with a risk of Alzheimer would undergo it, then it would be cheap enough that anybody rich enough could do it. Then imagine that e.g. I undergo that treatment and am now able to memorize all of Wikipedia, GitHub, and Stack Overflow. Then imagine competing against me for a job opening. You can practice all you want but never able to reach that level, because you're limited by genes while I've got rid of that limitation.

The Google guys are extremely well-invested in the bio-tech startups, and Larry the Oracle Guy puts all his money into an "institute for prolonging of human life". No bonus points will be awarded for the correct answer to the question "whose life exactly that institute is working to prolong?"

Someone mentioned steroids, but Epogen is another example.

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