Tuesday, August 17, 2004
On the shoulders of giants
In the New York Times today there is an article that asks whether we are reaching the limits of human athletic performance. It turns out that, after a long and steady improvement in speed, strength, stamina, etc. as measured by Olympic records, performance has actually slipped a bit since the 1980s. Most of that can probably be explained away by better drug testing, but it still begs the question of how far can we push the limits of our bodies.
That's all well and good, but here's my angle -- we shouldn't allow the performances of today to diminsh the accomplishments of the past.
Today we build thosand foot tall buildings and mile long bridges, but without the invention of the simple arch or concrete or even the hammer, we couldn't have done these things. That doesn't mean that those more basic developments were more important, just that they shouldn't be forgotten or taken for granted. Maybe they even are more important, in the sense that they are more fundamental, but who cares.
Similarly, baseball players of past eras didn't play at the level of today's athletes. Does that diminsh their achievements? No, because you couldn't have had Barry Bonds without Babe Ruth or Randy Johnson without Walter Johnson.
People aren't born with some innate knowledge of how to hit a ball at a high trajectory, throw it so it curves, strength train efficiently, or build things out of metal ... we learn from those that came before us and we improve upon it incrementally.
Either that or we cheat.
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That's all well and good, but here's my angle -- we shouldn't allow the performances of today to diminsh the accomplishments of the past.
Today we build thosand foot tall buildings and mile long bridges, but without the invention of the simple arch or concrete or even the hammer, we couldn't have done these things. That doesn't mean that those more basic developments were more important, just that they shouldn't be forgotten or taken for granted. Maybe they even are more important, in the sense that they are more fundamental, but who cares.
Similarly, baseball players of past eras didn't play at the level of today's athletes. Does that diminsh their achievements? No, because you couldn't have had Barry Bonds without Babe Ruth or Randy Johnson without Walter Johnson.
People aren't born with some innate knowledge of how to hit a ball at a high trajectory, throw it so it curves, strength train efficiently, or build things out of metal ... we learn from those that came before us and we improve upon it incrementally.
Either that or we cheat.
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