I don't disagree that the concept of if you hit someone they can / could hit back. I do think that a professional athlete hitting an assumedly not very physical person is way out of line. Ideally neither hits and if they do they are both guilty of assault. Another thought in this area is that people trained in martial arts usually don't use them unless it's a last resort.

Agreed on most points. This one is pretty variable though.

For the next decade or two, prosthetics will continue to be sub-optimal replacements for human limbs and only used in cases of extreme trauma. I think these will continue to be the preserve of the rich (they pretty much already are in terms of 1st vs 3rd world).

Eventually, we will get to a point where prosthetics are actually better than the equivalent human limb. That's several decades away IMO (accurate control is doable, but getting to the point of have a prosthetic that relay sensory information is a Really Hard Problem).

At that point, I think we'll very quickly see adoption of prosthetics become mainstream, but it will still be geared towards the relatively wealthy (see present day adoption of smartphones).

But once you get to that point, even the most basic model prosthetic will outperform a human limb. I believe it's almost certain that these kinds of limbs will be "smart", i.e. instead of accepting simple commands from the brain of "contract tricep", "grip fingers", etc, you'll see an arm that draw a perfect circle. And they'll be stronger than a human arm almost by default (not picking up cars strong, support structures aren't there for that, but certainly stronger than an olympic athlete)

So either way, I still don't think we'll see a "prosthetic underclass".

That is freaking phenomenal! I've been an athlete my whole life and have just shy of 50 years on that boss... not sure i could do that if my life depended on it.

I am so athletically lame

It would be great if this sort of obstacle course was at the local park.

Of course the fun police would shut it down before it even started.

These guys are awesomely athletic.

There's another "ex-athlete" behind you.

Cabela's is a sporting (as in hunting/fishing type activities, no athletics) goods catalog business. They expanded from that into a few really huge stores of over 200,000 square feet, recent stores are closer to 80,000-100,000. The really big stores were travel destinations for sporting enthusiasts. I'm not sure about the smaller ones, but the big 225,000 size stores had restaurants. Most of the stores have a large "conservation mountain" of mounted animals, some have aquariums (the one in Columbus has a 5,000 gallon one). I think some of them even had climbing walls. Other chain stores that have similar things are Bass Pro Shops, Gander Mountain...

My step father is a taxidermist and sportsman, so he gets the catalog. He's never done work for them, though he's done some for one of the local stores. I haven't seen a catalog for a long time, so either he stopped getting it or they stopped sending it out in mass and use their online store as the catalog was probably expensive.

They're doing business with mexican drug cartels and tyrannical dictators. What did you expect? Morals? Ethics?
Not only can they themselves apply a ridiculous amount of financial leverage on international and local politics, their customers are rich (and therefore politically powerful) and sometimes politicians themselves (serving their own financial interests).
Given the United States' position as a international trade power of considerable magnitude and the complete corruption of the government by sponsoring election campaigns like race teams or top athletes, you will never see the power of the banks diminish. Just count how many millionaires are sitting in the senate or congress and ask yourself why they should risk loosing money over protecting your interests. You're only worth something to them as long as they can get your vote. They wouldn't dare to fuck with the people that count their money for you.
We used to have kings, now we have bankers and CEOs. At least you could behead royalty till none were left but these peoplecorporations just grow new heads. They're Hydras.

Also the difference between conscious action and reflex. They've done MRI scans of brains in highly trained athletes and when performing complex activities like dribbling a basketball, they're brains are hardly working because the activity functions basically on autopilot. Meanwhile, people who haven't done the activity before are thinking super hard and MRI looks totally different. Riding a bike seems very likely the same thing.

While I don't think college players should be paid like pro athletes, I think all of their scholarships should include housing, meal plans, and some extra money (like what other students would get if they worked part time). They should also get to keep their scholarship if they get injured (up to 4 year bachelors), as long as they maintain some GPA.

And the coaches shouldn't make more money than provosts & chancellors of the same university. I'll never understand that. If schools have so much extra cash to burn to stay non-profit, LOWER THE PRICE OF TUITION.

A lot of good points, but I think paid student athletes opens up other cans of worms that aren't really discussed here at all. I'd rather see ALL sports uncoupled from education entirely, at all levels. Won't ever happen in the US, but I think it should.

It's very hard to differentiate ribs breaking and massive blunt trauma on that area. Something i found out after a wrestling match with one feisty woman where she landed on my ribs flying knees first taking me down... She was a stripper at a time and athletics to match. The doctor said that the pain is the same and only x-rays solved that nothing broke but i had a massive bruising under the ribs. Takes about same time to heal as bone injury too.

Don't forget it helps to wash your foot right away after you remove the sweaty sock! That is; if you're young and ready to get right back out there with a new sock and some more athletic activities!

Forget the aesthetic value, what happens when the prostheses is actually better (stronger, faster, more accurate, more dextrous) than a real limb. Because it's going to happen and almost certainly within our lifetime.

At what point do we tell an athlete that's been in an accident that they are no longer allowed compete because their prosthetic is too good?

My two are total opposites. One is athletic and lithe ...the other, a sweet big bull in a china shop. I feel for my downstairs neighbors on many occasions.

Hope you feel better soon.