Daniel, that's a very fine thought experiment. You took the idea and ran it in for a touchdown.

Let's run up the score.

The developing story is not only about drugs. It's about self-manipulation: humans shedding limitations inherited from our ancestors.

Performance-enhancing drugs are first. Gaining a complete understanding of cellular biochemistry is next; science is working hard on that. We can be certain that more drugs will arrive out of that research, and probably at a dizzying pace, which tweak athletic performance. But it need not stop there, and probably won't.

We are, all of us, infested by - call them parasites, pathogens, symbiotes (though their benignity is debatable), whichever you prefer - microorganisms and viruses. For every human cell we have, we have ten times that many microbes along for the ride. We have almost no control today over what those microorganisms are doing, or where they are doing it. Sometimes they boost our efficiency, other times hamper it, and sometimes they produce disease. Science is diving deeper into this microbial soup all the time; is it unreasonable to predict that we'll learn how to tweak it to minimize the negative side-effects and maximize performance-enhancing potential?

Genetic manipulation is coming for both microorganisms and their human hosts, too. Parents wealthy enough will be in a position to choose what sort of muscle density their offspring will have, their height, their metabolic rate, their vision, the properties of their microbes, anything and everything that might enhance athletic performance. Look out into the future far enough and it's not hard to anticipate divergence of humans into multiple subtypes specialized to excel in specific roles. The unmodified human, drugs or no drugs, will be at a competitive disadvantage - and it will be true in more fields than sports.

Peer even further, and you might anticipate the rise of multiple species, all descended from humans. Or mostly, at any rate. The possibility of gene insertions from other species looms large.

One likely fact stands out. Early adopters will reap a competitive advantage. Some, perhaps many, of the tweaks that will become possible will be initially accessible only to the privileged who can afford them. The big story of the 20th Century in sports was the growing dominance of sport by athletes with humble roots. That won't necessarily be the story of the 21st.

I'm calling my bookie and betting on Harvard to sweep to a national championship in 2035.

The simple truth is that humans are starting to hack themselves, and as with previous incarnations of hacking, we can frown, but we can't stop it. I think it's time to give up attempting to ban or regulate body hacks. Don't peer into athletes' lockers with a morally superior sneer. Just watch them play.

-- Urgelt

http://www.youtube.com/urgelt