Washington Post staff writer Joel Garreau informs us that it's only a matter of time before scientists, like those who created "Schwarzenegger rats," with necks wider than their heads, find their research boosting the performance of human athletes. Like the rats, the technologically-enhanced athletes will be stronger, live longer, and recover faster from injuries than their 100 percent organic competitors. And forget about pain. Garreau tell us that a biotech company called Rinat Neuroscience is working on a "pain vaccine" that promises to block intense pain in less than 10 seconds and last up to 30 days. The newspaper story, adapted from Garreau's book, Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies -- and What It Means to Be Human," wonders if athletes will be able to resist the advantages that technology is now making available, and concludes with this quote from medical writer Elizabeth M. McNally: "Athletes find a way of using just about anything,"
Perhaps, but writing in the same newspaper two days later, columnist Joel Achenbach offers these reassuring words: "A lot of us are porch people, who like to hang out and listen to the birds and read a good book [and, admit it, drink wine and smoke a stoge], and we will fight to retain our flesh and blood, our good ol' human meat, and the Old Ways of doing things. Our motto is: Immortality in Moderation."
