/ News

07.08.2012

'Blade runner' makes Olympic history

Whichever nation the supporters inside the Olympic Stadium were cheering for, there was a collective standing ovation for a history-making South African athlete yesterday. Oscar Pistorius, instantly recognisable as the so-called "blade runner" or the "fastest man on no legs" running on artificial limbs, became the first double amputee to compete at the Olympic Games.

And by posting a second-place finish in a 400m heat, he is guaranteed a place in tomorrow's final. "I've run so many times in the UK and it feels like a second home to me," he said.

The 26-year-old's legs were amputated below the knee just before his first birthday and he has won four titles at the Paralympics. He has competed at the World Athletics Championships but this was his first time at the Olympics.

"I have always said it is one thing being here and another thing performing here, and that is what I have been concentrating on," he said. "I want to represent my country well. I worked very hard for what I am able to achieve. I have been blessed with a talent that has enabled me to get to the Paralympics and the Olympics, but really it is all about the people around me. I have been with my coaching team for nine years; my friends and family are so patient with me. Everyone around me has put so much into my career."

The defending champion in the 400m, LaShawn Merritt, did not finish his heat after suffering a hamstring injury. Pistorius is also due to compete in the 4x400m relay track event.

For those still without Olympic tickets, there was an early start for one of thefree events at Hyde Park. The women's triathlon led to the closest margin of gold medal victory of the Games so far – and one of the narrowest in Olympics history – with a photo finish at the finishing tape. Switzerland's Nicola Spirig and Sweden's Lisa Norden were given the same finishing time after the 1,500m swim around the open water of the Serpentine, a 43km cycle and 10km run around Constitution Hill and the Mall. Spirig was given first place on the width of herrunning vest.

British hope Helen Jenkins fell away during the final running leg of the course and came in a respectable, if personally disappointing, fifth. She revealed that she sustained an injury during training in the final weeks before the Olympics that had hampered her chances. "I didn't know my form when it came to the run and it was a bit of an unknown," she said. "I gave it everything but I couldn't hang on. It's been a rough 10 weeks. Everything that we didn't want to happen did happen – a bad swim, a crash, a puncture and injury."

There was disappointment in the trampolining hall as well. British No 1 Kat Driscoll, 26, from County Durham, finished ninth in a competition won by Canada's Rossannagh Maclennan. She said: "No one wants to finish ninth, do they? I did the best routines I could do but they just weren't good enough today. I am so pleased I did what I did and I am proud of my routines. I just enjoyed the experience. I did not feel a weight of expectation from the crowd or pressure. I just felt they were giving me a big hug and taking care of me."

There were encouraging signs for Great Britain, however, in the show-jumping as Nick Skelton and Ben Maher both started strongly in the qualifying stage in Greenwich Park. Only the top 60 riders move into the second of five rounds of competition, which runs into next week. It is Skelton's sixth attempt to win Olympic gold and has been posted as the favourite among bookmakers on his horse Big Star.

One man not competing is former 100m sprint world champion Kim Collins of St Kitts and Nevis, who said he had been sent home and prevented from running for breaking team rules by leaving the Olympic Village to meet his wife. Collins, 36, who vowed never to run for his country again, said: "I honestly do not see what is the big deal. Even men in prison get their wives to visit."

Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/olympics/athletics/blade-runner-makes-olympic-history-8008013.html




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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.

The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies. 

The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.

A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.

The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.

An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.

 

Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society

2015-2020

The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.

2020-2025

Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning  bodily life. Such technologies will  greatly enlarge  the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make  all  kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.

2030-2035

Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness  with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness  onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of  cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence,  expand human capabilities  and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times.  The final result  at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.

2045

This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive!  Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.

Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots  will become affordable  and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however:  humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover,  prerequisites for a large-scale  expansion into outer space will be created as well.

 

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• International social movement
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