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The AF10 Olympics

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Thu, 2012-05-17 18:12

Arenamontanus Arenamontanus's picture

The AF10 Olympics

(Apologies to Prophet710 for starting a near-named thread 25 minutes after theirs, but I was just interviewed on the topic and feel inspired) What about the Olympic games of AF10? The Olympics have never been just sport. Originally religious celebrations they also became political events and later commercial events. The ideals of athletes shifted: representatives of their state, epitomes of human excellence, symbols of achievement, marketing symbols, demonstrations of (legal or not) biomedical ability. They should be gentlemen amateurs - or people selected from birth for their great potential. External aids like swigs of strychnine in brandy were OK, or ultra-illegal doping. And so on. A few guesses at the future Olympics: * As biotech became ever better, the doping issue grew to the breaking point. Even if it could be totally prevented the audience themselves would be more enhanced than many athletes, less interested in their performance since they could do nearly the same things. Genetic enhancement made a real mockery of comparing natural human excellence. Instead harm reduction and classes were instituted: medical oversight kept an eye on the athletes, making sure they did not train or enhance in ways that were directly harmful. Different levels of enhancement were put in different classes, ranging from the ever less important totally unenhanced men and women classes, via the joint "equalized" class where enhancement kept within more or less natural limits, to the ever more extreme "free" class. Rules were quietly updated to keep competitions interesting and not just a battle of megacorp sponsored bioengineers. * One issue that remained staunchly traditional was the biological *human* bodies. While most would agree that the pure technology angle of synthmorphs made for bad sport, the issue of uplift athletes was a constant battle. * Nation states kept their role for a long time as hosts and organisers of Olympics, although the money increasingly came from the megacorps. The real challenge was the breakdown of many nation states and the emergence of non-national powers demanding to be let in. This led to a long-running struggle between the nation-dominated IOC with its rules requiring athletes to have citizenship and an emerging "Open Olympics Movement" that even organised its own counter-olympics. The hypercorps quietly sided with the OOM, slowly twisting the arm of the IOC to allow postnational groups to participate. * It is safe to guess that the Fall disrupted the Olympics completely, not just like wars once did but also by destroying the entire international structure. * The 19th century revival was a mix of Greek nationalism and classicist dreams for a better world. The post-Fall revival was a combination of Consortium social engineering and an attempt to connect the disparate polities of the solar system. The new Interplanetary Olympic Committee might certainly have had members from many places, but the core ideas have the style of the Planetary Consortium: a celebration of transhuman ability and expansiveness. Critics have again pointed out the non-representation of mercurials and decentralized polities. * The Jovian Republic is a firm supporter of the Olympics, but only in the unenhanced class. There, on the other hand, they are very strong. * The Ultimates take the opposite stance, aiming to dominate in the free class. Losing against non-ultimates is unthinkable. * Argonaut polities, being sufficiently organised to fulfil IOC rules to send athletes, act as "flags of convenience" for athletes of aligned but non-eligible autonomist societies. So, what do you think? Does this make sense? What sports would actually be interesting in this situation? And how much dirty deals are going on behind the scenes?

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Thu, 2012-05-17 18:53

Prophet710 Prophet710's picture

Re: The AF10 Olympics

I think something like this would most certainly surface if the Fall were an actual event. Events such as these are inherently diplomatic in nature, now designed to soothe all participating body politics into friendship, if even for a few weeks. You'd be surprised what kind of policies are passed while the Olympic games are officially being held. I would see two classes of games going on. Unmodified, true feature atheletes and then Modified X-games. A special habitat might even be build to provide the exact amount of gravity for games such as wrestling, pole-vault, swimming/diving. Etc. However on the inner layers of said hab you could have zero g water polo. etc.

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"And yet, across the gulf of space, minds immeasurably superior to ours regarded this Earth with envious eyes. And slowly, and surely, they drew their plans against us."

Thu, 2012-05-17 19:35

Decivre

Re: The AF10 Olympics

One thing I see the Olympics becoming in AF10 is a sort of "public demonstration ground" for morph and implant technologies. While today the Olympics tries to maintain some separation from professional sports, this distinction largely goes away in 10 AF. Hypercorps provide the majority of backing for the games. Furthermore, hypercorp sponsors provide cutting-edge morphs to participants of the games. Of course, I also see a wide amount of segregation within the games. Clades may have their own portion of the games to themselves, so as to not compete with morphs better built for a specific purpose (that way, alpiners can compete among themselves over who's is the best at downhill Martian skiing, rather than having to compete with the exalts). Furthermore, synthmorphs probably compete in games put on by the Mercurials, as do uplift morphs (why shouldn't uplifts have their own version of the Olympic games?). Lastly, the Olympics probably takes place throughout the system, as opposed to the current structure of the games occurring in a single location. Most of the games occur in various parts of the inner system; but other groups might volunteer for various sub-elements of the games. The Junta probably handles the unenhanced class (the only class that Junta citizens are allowed to view), and gives out special passes so outside competitors can enter the Junta and participate. The neocetacean games of the Olympics probably take place in Atlantica, while avian Olympic games probably occur in Mahogany. This has a two-fold purpose... for one thing it helps promote goodwill between the factions in a usually heated social atmosphere. For another, it acts as free publicity for the various habitats out there that participate in the events, in order to spark tourism and trade. As for the Ultimates, I think they have their own games exclusive to them. Some haughty Ultimates might try to stake a claim at the Olympics, but it's a risk... should they win, all they did was prove themselves against lesser beings. If they lose, they disgrace themselves in front of their entire faction, and anyone in the system who happens to be watching. They have little to gain and everything to lose.

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Transhumans will one day be the Luddites of the posthuman age. [url=http://bit.ly/2p3wk7c]Help me get my gaming fix, if you want.[/url]

Thu, 2012-05-17 20:48

nerdnumber1 nerdnumber1's picture

Re: The AF10 Olympics

I think that there would be multiple Olympics-like competitions that sprung up trying to market themselves as the try successor to Earth's Olympics, each with their own rules and values. I just don't see every faction in the solarsystem agreeing to the same regulations (especially considering the divide between bio-cons and progressives). Jovians have their own all HUMAN competitions, the inner system have a competiton of corp-funded athletes to show off the limits of their morphs, etc. I don't think Synthmorphs would be allowed, but some competitions would allow more exotic biomorphs such as uplifts. Trans-humanity is heavily factionalized and while Olympic competitions brings together a myriad of different people together, it is more difficult when the groups can't agree on the definition of "people."

Fri, 2012-05-18 05:49

Xagroth

Re: The AF10 Olympics

>snip< "diplomatic" >snip< Oh god... no more Eurovision! XD I think the Olympic Games in AF10 will be more like nowaday's Formula 1 races, with lots and lots or rules about what implants can be used and which ones cannot, morph models and types, etc... In fact, to keep things interesting, the games' location should rotate among all the solar system's main locations: in Mars, only Rusters, in Luna, only Lunars, in Titan, only Olympians, in Venus, only Gliders, and so on. That would also serve as a PR campaign for morph designers and the habitats themselves, generating a trending on that kind of morphs every four years, and keeping the market alive (for those who can allow themselves to pay for such a thing). This also means, of course, that while the olympic games are being held there will be a shortage of certain morph models. As for the athletes themselves, they would be celebrities by themselves, experts in bringing out every last inch of power from almost any morph, and the masses are able to feel even closer to them thanks to the morphs being "base" models (in fact, the morphs are modified versions, with a 10% extra performance than the market versions, but nobody knows that). It is also a great event the after-games parties, where the athletes morphs are auctioned for charity. It is worth of notice that in the last party, an assassination was made using the morph being auctioned... during the auction itself. The morph used a self-termination drug that fried the brain completely before being captured...