We are in the crowded closed lifting of a large American city. The final in the heavyweight category for athletes carrying the chromosome of the chromosome of olive chromosomes is ongoing. Hanging, literally, from the stadium stands, which spread amphitheatrically around the main racing stage. However, it remains perfectly silent, realizing the criticality of the moment.
An athlete, apparently over 50 years old, goes decisively and stands in front of the bar. He takes a deep breath, leans and with an unexpected confidence in his gaze, he attempts the last attempt left. A few seconds later, the ecstatic crowd shouts rhythmically and continuously his name. The unmistakable world record of 225kg in Arashe, held by Georgian legend Lhasa Talazanz Since 2018, it has just been broken.
The ‘inspirers’
The script could well be reminiscent of some futuristic Hollywood film science fiction, where in the distant future and with the help of rapid scientific progress, man has managed to overcome some of his natural boundaries, with the first of aging. And yet it is in fact the ambitious, but controversial, dream of Aaron de Souzainspired by the so -called “reinforced matches”, which are expected to premiere in May 2026 in Las Vegas.
It is a sporting event directly competitive with the Olympics, as the so -called “enhancement of efficiency” – the use of anabolic and doping – not only allowed, but is the quintessence of the whole project. This is, despite the persistent and fierce warnings of national and international bodies and authorities, of the dangers of athletes’ health.
De Souza inspired the idea about two decades ago when he read a work by Oxford University Professor Bioethics Julian Savlescu. The latter openly supported the organization of a kind of “reinforced Olympic Games”, where the use of anabolic would be allowed, but with strict scientific monitoring. Explaining his rationale in an interview with the German magazine “Spiegel”, he said: “My field is practical ethics. I’m interested in realistic. It is absolutely legitimate to demand doping matches, but it is not realistic. So we have to pursue the second best choice, which is an open doping market, ‘ in which everything “They will take place under the supervision of scientists and only the use of safe substances will be allowed”.
In contrast to Savlescu, however, De Souza’s argument in favor of “human aid” is not as practical as philosophical. It is ideologically surrounded by a scientific optimism of the optimization of human intellect and physiology by using all the available technological means-what in the current tranenus is called transhumanism-with the aim of creating a post-Human Condition. aging, diseases and, why not, of death. If one adds to the above and a solid dose of biological neo-consulting, which displays the above possibility as an obligation that humanity brings to itself, it more easily perceives the meaning of a phrase often repeated by De Souza: “We have not only the right, but also the duty to reinforce man”.
Although he did not know then, in 2009 it was to be a landmark year for De Souza’s career. A student at the University of Oxford Law School, just 24 years old, met in a room the then rising techno-entrepreneur, current billionaire and President Trump’s privileged interlocutor, Peter Tiel. The latter was at the university for a speech, having just sold Paypal, which he had founded a few years earlier. With the arrogance of youth and the endless need for impression, De Souza asked him rightly what was the biggest problem he was facing and how he could help. This move would change his life.
At that time, Tiel wanted to be desperately wanted to bring a lawsuit against the Gawker scandal website for a publication that presented him as a gay. But he did not want to attract publicity. The idea that de Souza suggested was simple: “Let’s finance someone else’s legal struggle against the site”. Opera and was. Tiel gave him $ 19 million, which was channeled into a professional wrestler dispute Halk Hogan Against Gawker for an illegally published “inappropriate film” starring himself. Hogan won and the site was forced to declare bankruptcy. A few years later, when De Souza suggested the idea of ”reinforced matches” to Tiel, the latter hugged her with warmth and money. His obsession with the issue of reversing aging is well known, having invested huge sums of startups active in the field.
In addition to Tiel, other philanthropic technicers have invested in the venture, such as the cryptocurrency investor Balazzi Srinevanthe Biohacking and Psychedelian fan, also a billionaire, Christianbut also the Donald Trump Juniorwho even finds quite common elements between the venture and the Maga movement: “All this has to do with excellence, innovation and American domination on the world scene – with exactly the same things the Maga movement has to do.”. Actually, ‘The fans of reinforced matches’ They seem to borrow something from the rhetoric of “first America”. Mainly the fierce attack on the ‘Outdated and hypocritical institutions’this time those of the Olympics.
The financial lure
“Our goal is not to break a world record. Is to break all world records » De Souza has occasionally declared. But behind the heavy declarations of the future of sport and the post-human, what really is at stake is a lot of money. According to most estimates, the “human aid” market will reach a trillion of $ 1 trillion in a few years. These calculations are anything but irrational, if one considers that the revenue from conventional dietary supplements already amount to billions. As the German “Die Zeit” says very glee and somewhat provocatively, the “business of the creation of super-human” is the second largest discovery of our time after artificial intelligence.
From ancient tragedy to Frankestein of Mary Seley and Oscar Wilde’s “Portrait of Dorian Gray”, art conceived in a more precise way than science, the fruit of man’s desire to go beyond his natural boundaries.
Commenting on the idea of enclosure, the British philosopher Simon Kritsley It makes an interesting observation anyway: “I would like to reverse things a little bit and argue that we have to question the idea of longevity. The material term to be human is the body. The body declines and dies, retreats and changes, and this is a constant reminder of who we are. For me, being free means to accept the boundaries of your body, to accept yourself as a material and a mortal being. And that means accepting that life is short. To embrace, to make it and to enjoy life in its brevity. “.
