When Will We All Want to Become Super Humans?

Oscar Pistorius London 2012 (Wikimedia)

This Olympics, for the first time ever, a double below-knee amputee, Oscar Pistorius ran in the able-bodied games. A ground breaker in changing attitudes, inspiring the ignorant and showing what perseverance and technology can do. But, my question is this; what happens when the paralympians run faster, jump higher or throw further than those with no disability?

The process of human augmentation in small amounts is already completely accepted in our society. We have bad eyes, so we wear contacts- a form of human augmentation or enhancement. We want to look younger, we use Botox (well, the more masochistically inclined amongst us do) and I have never heard anyone sue anyone over that- not even in America. But, what happens in the not-too-distant future when a man cuts off his leg in favour of a metal one? It won’t be long until these super-humans really are the fittest, the strongest and the fastest and able-bodied people will want a piece of the action. 

I believe we cannot predict how such a monumental turning of tables may affect us, but one thing is certain, it will be too modern a concept for our logic and our legislation to deal with.