techphil.de

Max Roßmann, Ph.D. Philosophy
M.A. Philosophy of Science & Technology
B.Sc. Chemical Technology

Did you already see @peterthiel’s new libertarian project http://enhanced.org? Since Elon Musk & Peter Thiel have a lot of capital, networks, and more generally, the discourse power to impact people’s understanding of technoloy & science, their projects always deserve some critical attention. The @enhanced_games represent the pharma companies‘ vision to test new drugs and enhancement…

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Peter Thiel’s Enhanced Games – A cyberpunk fairytale comes true.

Did you already see @peterthiel’s new libertarian project http://enhanced.org? Since Elon Musk & Peter Thiel have a lot of capital, networks, and more generally, the discourse power to impact people’s understanding of technoloy & science, their projects always deserve some critical attention.

The @enhanced_games represent the pharma companies‘ vision to test new drugs and enhancement technology on commodified human bodies in a spectacular sports competition. Athletes get sponsored and tuned like formula one cars to present cutting-edge science and technology in giant spectacle to advertise and polish the flawed image of medical research and mobilizes voices for deregulation.

Their framing aims to delegitimate the social state’s responsiblity to protect human dignity by a private safety garantee: „Sports can be safer without drug testing“, „Health Testing, Not Drug Testing“, At the Enhanced Games, we prioritise athlete safety“,“free medical screening“. The ethos of @enhanced_games as seemingly trustworthy, integer, and common good movement is further promoted by a rhetoric that delegitimizes the Olympic comitee as the worse alternative, having a Nazi past, illustrated by a Hitlergruß https://enhanced.org/leak-to-us/

With @enhanced_games, the unbounded competition of commodified and enhanced human bodies is not just an imaginary or fictional #cyberpunk narrative but becomes a company, a branding, a movement to participate on various social media channels, and a potential investment asset. Finally, the mobilization strategies for libertarian ideology and deregulation become an asset to invest in. Since RCTs to proof drug safety are expensive, health is a giant market, and the flawed image of drug research could need a polish, big pharma is likely to chip in.

And again, if this was not @peterthiel & Balaji Srinivasan but any other tech startup. I would not bother your attention.