The Limits of Human Potential

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Wed May 23, 2012 3:51 pm

Sort of branching off from a post in the "yadda yadda lost you" thread, it was noted by somebody that a lot of superheroes are listed as at "the limits of human potential." Which caused me to sit back and think for a minute. Because that is both totally correct and proper - but is more complicated than that.

Because superheroes are nothing new. If you go back to the pulp heroes of the 20s and 30s, guys like The Spider and Doc Savage, and even before that, you see a lot of "limit of human ability" characters in one or more areas - either as a result of training, supervitamins, whatever - and that grew out of the whole fad for exercise, vitamins, and eugenics that was sweeping the world at the time.

But, and this is the thing - the limit of human potential keeps moving. Our Olympic level athletes today are head and shoulders above the Olympic athletes of a couple decades ago. The United States in general might be moving toward obesity, but a segment of the population is also tons more focused on exercise and eating right than anybody was back in the 50s. We have men and women today that would have been superheroes along the lines of Captain America if they'd existed back in the 1940s.

We accept that there was no golden age where men were taller and stronger than they are now - that men were not giants, and that we can better ourselves. But our general understanding of the limits of human potential, the popular notion of it - I think that has changed, but we have failed to recognize the change since it was so slow and gradual. We recognize the superhuman only by over-the-top stuff, but we can go watch the World's Strongest Man competition and see Magnus von Magnusson or whatever pull a bus with his teeth and manhandle empty automobiles. A feat that might have seemed superhuman in the 60s is, today, within the realm of at least a select few.

Which is a long way to say: Captain America is stronger today than he was in 1945, not because of any comics shenanigans but because he's kept current with our moving conception of the "limit" or "peak" of human potential.

Lago PARANOIA · Post by **Lago PARANOIA** » Wed May 23, 2012 4:02 pm

The thing is that while from a long-term trend standpoint olympic weightlifters being able to lift an extra 80kg or shaving a minute off of the mile-long run over the course of a century is meaningful, it's not impressive to those not in the know. It's not the kind of thing you'd casually notice. It's annoying because it causes (mostly fictional) writers to way overplay the WSoD hand.

Taishan · Post by **Taishan** » Wed May 23, 2012 4:08 pm

I found this to be a really fun book. I'm reading the sequel, Inventing Iron Man.

tussock · Post by **tussock** » Thu May 24, 2012 10:00 am

Our Olympic level athletes today are head and shoulders above the Olympic athletes of a couple decades ago.

Not really. The tracks are all faster than they used to be, new Olympic pools are designed to bounce the swimmer's body wave off the bottom to help propel them forward without interference from other lanes, the gear, shoes, suits, are all lighter and slicker, even the infamous javelin became much stiffer and more aerodynamic before they had to change it to fit the throws in the stadium again.

Yeh, there's gains in training and sports medicine, women are allowed to train now, people are full-time athletes, but most of the gains are tech, not people.

Chamomile · Post by **Chamomile** » Thu May 24, 2012 11:51 am

Wait. We know there are gains being made in tech. We know there are gains being made in general health. How do we know how much of the superior performance the different improvements are responsible for? Has anyone ever done a study to see how well a modern athlete would do using 1940s gear?

tussock · Post by **tussock** » Thu May 24, 2012 3:21 pm

Not just gear, the 1948 running track was ash. You can see them kicking it up as they run in photos, leaving little divots with every step. It was all raked flat after each run, and didn't bog up like rolled turf, but it's got nothing on the modern materials. Modern running tracks are rubber, they bounce, the top ones strongly resist any forces that might add drag to the runner.

Hurdles, bikes, even the bar and how you're allowed to lift it at weightlifting.

As for real athletic progression, best 1500m in 1967 was 3:33.1, best in 2011 was 3:30.5, so it's about 1% per fourty years. All that's gone from is plastic to rubber tracks, and lighter and more flexible shoes. OK, El Guerrouj was 4.5 seconds faster still, but the drug testing is much better now.