Introduction
Being human is one of the most mysterious things in existence and one continues to test the enhancements and see how far the human beings can exceed the limits of nature. Steven Poole in his article ‘Being human,’ talks about the enhancements that humans make to themselves. He says that for a very long time, the humans were only biologically human, but now the technological advancements have inspired the human race to invent so many different things that it has compelled the people to think about the future and what it would make out of humans. It is a question of whether this would change us to cyborgs, ubermenschen, post humans or just much better versions of being human .
The writer talks about the sporting enhancements that have increased the competition throughout the years. The enhancements are designed to make the humans better in the particular area; however the cultural side has always been uncertain about interfering with the natural human bodies.
Summary
The human race has come up with the technological enhancements like running shoes, pacemakers, implants and dental crowns, contact lenses and spectacles which have improved the human body in many positive ways. The sportsman uses drugs to help him win the tournament and if one gets caught, there is a huge debate over damage it has caused to the integrity of that sport. A particular sportsman does not suddenly starts using those drugs, but the other ones are using them for a long time as well. The advancements are being done for the similar purpose and to believe that only one player did the doping would not be correct. That one player worked harder than the others, along with taking the drugs which is why he won and which is why he did deserve to win. The rules and laws of sports are made to make the competition a fair one, but in reality, the tournaments are never fair. Some players have advantages over other players because they are born with much stronger genes, while the others are born in a rich country that includes all the high-tech facilities required for training. Furthermore these reasons do not always guarantee success; however the audience should not always believe that all the players competing in the tournament and drug-free and fair .
Pathos of article
Ethos of article
Furthermore Steven Poole (2012) states that there are many enhancements that the players are allowed to take like mineral drinks, vitamins, dietary science etc. The authorities have allowed these so they should also allow the other drugs, but instead they feel the need to draw a line to include the term ‘fair’ in sports. The author mentions other authors to make his point strong. Andy Miah who is a professor of argued in the exhibition of Superhuman that the chemical enhancements are being widely used around the world, so they should be allowed to experiment in the sports world and to deny them to the athletes does not make sense, since they are still using them for their benefits. Talking about the limits and enhancements, he mentions the controversy of Oscar Pistorius who lost the 200 meters final race in the Paralympics. Pistorius suggested that the blades of the winner of the race Alan Oliveira were longer in length which provided him with an advantage over the others. However, it was confirmed that the length of Alan’s blades were under the rules made . These rules made are subtle in themselves because Oliveira’s blades were right under the measurements proposed by the authorities .
Logos of article
Steven Poole (2012) mentions the ‘Superhuman’ exhibition and talks about the robots displayed in that exhibition. He believes that people designing these robots celebrate their end product because it is their hope to be replaced by machines one day. Such examples can also be seen in a lot of sci-fi movies which show a certain robot or machine taking over the world and capturing in the most brutal way. He quotes Ray Kurzweil, the inventor on one such machine, to give the readers an idea of how these inventors would clearly like us to become machines and operate in robotic ways. He quotes that ‘It will not be a matter of us versus them. We will become the machines.’
Conclusion
Steven Poole gives the readers an idea about the world that the technological inventors are trying to create in which the human beings have exceeded their limits of their biological bodies. He argues that replacing the humans with robots would not do any good, and this could be avoided by enhancing your mind instead of turning yourself over to the machines. He quotes Professor Allen Buchanan, ‘It’s too late to “just say no” to biomedical enhancements.’ Many of these drugs were invented to treat a disease and it has benefited a lot of people; so it would be useless to ban them in sports when the world is using them with such ease. He says that it would be better if the inventors suggest in enhancing their decision and judgment making abilities which would help in making better judgments. Our choices to survive are the only threats that the humans create themselves, which result in either benefits or disasters. Some people believe it to be religiously obligatory to produce such body enhancements while others tend to keep fair.
Bibliography
Poole, Steven. "Magazine." Aeon Magazine. November 07, 2012. http://aeon.co/magazine/being-human/steven-poole-human-enhancement.
