Can steroids battle inhabitants cave in? The Enhanced Video games desires to determine. by way of NewsFlicks

The Enhanced Video games, a brand new wearing pageant explicitly designed to permit performance-enhancing medicine, looks as if a exposure stunt for the techno-macho technology: Olympic athletes on steroids competing for million-dollar bounties in Las Vegas. However co-founder Aron D’Souza has a 90% gross margin telehealth industry in thoughts, and a pitch to governments suffering with growing old populations. 

Launching in Might 2026 with Peter Thiel’s backing, the Video games promise $1 million bounties for breaking global information. Former Olympic athletes like sprinter Fred Kerley and swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev have already signed as much as compete. The purpose isn’t simply to destroy global information whilst fanatics cheer. It’s to construct a advertising and marketing engine for a long life trade that D’Souza believes will likely be value trillions. 

“We use sports activities advertising and marketing to promote a human enhancement product,” D’Souza stated on a up to date episode of Fairness. “It’s a telehealth provider like Hims or Roman, aside from we [will] have proof that the most productive and quickest athletes on the planet use our protocols.” 

The industry style is borrowed from Crimson Bull – excessive sports activities as commercial for the product – however the product isn’t an power drink. It’s testosterone, expansion hormone, or no matter else can stay people aggressive with machines and productive into their 70s and past. 

Whilst the Video games are observed as debatable, D’Souza is making a bet the ick issue fades as soon as folks see athletes of their 30s and 40s destroy global information. He and billionaire co-founder Christian Angermayer have raised “double-digit tens of millions” in this principle and poached executives from the U.S. Olympic Committee, Crimson Bull, and FIFA to construct what D’Souza calls a challenge to “improve all of humanity.” 

“I imagine that after Fred [Kerley] breaks [Usain Bolt’s] 100-meter global report in Vegas subsequent 12 months, it is going to be a watershed second to turn that enhanced people are higher than peculiar people,” he stated.  

Put differently: if Sputnik introduced the distance age and ChatGPT introduced the AI growth, D’Souza thinks a juiced dash may just release the human enhancement technology – and free up the similar flood of funding.  

Longevity startups raised $8.5 billion in 2024 as pastime in lifespan extension moved from fringe obsession to mainstream funding thesis. The attraction spans from billionaires investment anti-aging analysis to on a regular basis American citizens turning to direct-to-consumer well being monitoring when conventional healthcare fails them. 

However D’Souza believes longevity isn’t only a nice-to-have; it’s changing into a need-to-have within the face of ever-aging populations and ever-smarter machines.  

In lots of portions of the arena, falling delivery charges have put primary world economies at the trail towards inhabitants cave in. A up to date McKinsey find out about discovered fertility charges are declining beneath the substitute fee just about all over aside from sub-Saharan Africa. Many nations have used immigration to handle the demanding situations of an growing old inhabitants, since immigrants most often arrive at a more youthful operating age, fill in important exertions gaps, and have a tendency to have extra youngsters.  

However mass migration has precipitated a political backlash in Europe and the U.S., the place right-wing events have won flooring by way of stoking fears about immigration and nationwide id. Immigration has been a central factor of Donald Trump’s presidency, and D’Souza reckons the problem may just push far-right leaders in international locations like Germany, France, and the U.Ok. into energy.  

“In the event you’re towards mass immigration, you find yourself with this demographic style that appears like Japan,” D’Souza stated, including that Japan’s reasonable age (49.8 years outdated) makes it probably the most oldest populations on the planet.  

“So how do you reconcile the need for financial expansion with an anti-immigration modality?” he persisted. “Smartly, the answer needs to be longevity and human enhancement, as a result of there’s no wrong way. We want a tender, operating, tax-paying inhabitants, and that doesn’t stack up with low delivery charges.” 

It’s a stark pitch: Slightly than include immigration or increase social protection nets that would possibly inspire upper delivery charges, simply support people to paintings longer. D’Souza brushed aside the coverage possible choices – Europe already attempted supporting households, he says, and it did not carry delivery charges up.  

Given this backdrop, the Enhanced Video games has some predictable backers, together with Thiel and Donald Trump Jr., thru his VC company 1789 Ventures. D’Souza describes each as “obsessive concerning the demographics of the country.” Thiel has poured cash into longevity startups together with Unfashionable Biosciences, Harmony Biotechnology, and NewLimit, which he co-founded with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong in 2021.  

In fact, most of the Video games’ similar traders also are making a bet billions that synthetic common intelligence (AGI) — necessarily, AI that may carry out any highbrow process {that a} human can — will quickly do maximum jobs higher than people can. Which raises the query: If AGI is coming, why hassle extending our operating years in any respect?  

“We’ve the Sam [Altman] view of the arena, which is that AGI will come, it is going to exchange the entire people, after which the people are mainly a second-class species as a result of there will likely be a awesome species within the machines,” D’Souza stated. “And I feel the inevitable result of that, which Sam received’t admit, is that people [become] inappropriate.” 

The exchange paradigm D’Souza is proposing? A contest between people and machines.  

“The machines are getting higher in actual time, and as a result of out of date rules, in particular by way of the World Olympic Committee and the Global Anti Doping Company… human enhancement is stifled, and so we aren’t in a position to improve rapid sufficient to compete with the machines,” he persisted. “Now, my purpose is to be sure that people can stay aggressive with the machines.” 

The issue with this species-level framing, despite the fact that, is that now not all people will essentially get the improve.  

D’Souza says “era diffusion” will result in a kind of trickle-down enhancement, the place what’s appropriate for champion athletes turns into remedy for individuals who do such things as CrossFit, after which turns into extra appropriate for extra non-athletes. However the industry style – top class telehealth services and products advertised thru elite athletes – issues towards a possible truth the place the rich get enhanced, and everybody else will get older.  

Once I urged that enhancement applied sciences would most likely succeed in the wealthiest first — and that elites would possibly hoard get right of entry to to those features — D’Souza didn’t chase away.

“I feel that could be a doubtlessly pernicious result of human enhancement,” he stated.