5YF Episode #21: Enhanced Games President Aron D'Souza

Future of Human Potential: Showcasing Superhumans To The World

subscribe and listen today

Today, we explore science and technology’s ability to break through humanity’s biological limits.

When 44% of athletes already use performance enhancements, it is time to safely celebrate science

As one Olympics ends, another begins: The Enhanced Games, set to debut in 2025. These games place performance-enhancing drugs and genetic modifications at the forefront, aiming to showcase humanity’s untapped potential through cutting-edge science. Though controversial, they signal a future where human optimization could redefine sports, injury recovery, and longevity, potentially creating one of the largest new markets in history.

Led by Aron D’Souza and his team of serial entrepreneurs, with backing from investors like Peter Thiel and scientific support from Harvard’s Dr. George Church, the Enhanced Games could be a pivotal moment in our journey toward reimagining human biology.

My 5 Year Outlook:

• Biology’s Sputnik Moment: In 2025, a globally televised event aims to redefine human performance and ignite a race for superhumanity.‍
• The Enhancement Economy: The largest potential market ever created.‍
• Retiring At 100 Years Old: If an enhanced 65 year old breaks an Olympic record, how will that shift our perception of the working age?

Curious? Read on as I unpack each below 👇🏼

Biology's Sputnik Moment

The objective of is not to build a better version of the Olympics, its to build superhumanity

In 2025, a globally televised event aims to redefine human performance and ignite the race toward superhumanity. This showcase will highlight what athletes can achieve when they fully embrace performance enhancements, pushing their potential to new limits. If records are shattered through scientific intervention, it could reshape our acceptance of biological enhancements in sports and, ultimately, in society.

There is a future where pharmacological intervention, genetic modifiers, and material science improvements, are embraced in sports. Even if just within the theatre of The Enhanced Games. As investments in these technologies grow, the gap between natural human abilities and those augmented by science will become increasingly apparent. The desire to surpass our biological limits is already present, from steroids in gym locker rooms to cosmetic enhancements on Rodeo Drive. What could happen if this desire is brought out of the shadows and into the mainstream, backed by full scientific and economic power?

All it might take to shift public perception is a spark—an undeniable proof—a Sputnik moment.

The Enhanced Games are being meticulously designed, from the science behind them to the social media strategy, to deliver that defining moment. If successful, they could trigger a surge in demand for enhancements and alter the course of human evolution. It’s difficult to envision a future where elite athletes, pharmaceutical companies, or governments remain passive as records in weightlifting, running, combat, and gymnastics fall to a new breed of competition.

Aron D'Souza, President of Enhanced Games

The Enhanced Games are a new model of the Olympic Games that places performance-enhancing drugs and genetic modifiers front and center. The Games strive to showcase humanity’s unbounded potential by embracing scientific innovations and breakthroughs. In an era of accelerating technological and scientific change, they believe the world needs a sporting event that embraces the future, particularly advances in medical science. By doing so they promise to give us all a glimpse at what the future of human performance could look like. Set to debut in 2025, the Games have the deep-pocketed support of some of the most successful and polarizing technologists and investors, including PayPal founder Peter Thiel and Balaji, the futurist CTO of Coinbase, as well as an upcoming documentary series by Ridley Scott.

Aron D’Souza, co-founder and president of the Enhanced Games. Prior to the Enhanced Games, Aron founded Sargon, a technology infrastructure company for the pensions and superannuation industry across the Asia-Pacific region. Now owned by Vista Equity, Sargon has 200 employees and nine offices. Aron, the author of three books, studied law at both Melbourne University and Oxford.

The Enhancement Economy

Formula One is a relentless pursuit of motorsport perfection—a symbiotic relationship between athlete and engineer. An F1 car bears little resemblance to a production Mercedes or Renault, nor would anyone be captivated by a race between stock vehicles. Yet, innovations born in F1, from anti-lock brakes to carbon fiber and traction control, have profoundly impacted the cars we drive every day. Similarly, The Enhanced Games seeks to forge a partnership between athletes and scientists, but with a focus on enhancing our bodies, not our machines.

One enhancement drug is worth 5X all of AI.

The soaring demand for biological upgrades is exemplified by the blockbuster success of Ozempic and GLP-1 drugs. Originally designed for diabetes, a staggering 80% of their use is now off-label, primarily for weight loss. Transitioning from treating the ill to optimizing the well has added over $1 trillion to the market capitalization of companies like Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly. By comparison, the major generative AI startups, including OpenAI, collectively hold a valuation of around $200 billion. As Aron D’Souza, President of The Enhanced Games, aptly points out, one enhancement drug’s market value eclipses that of the entire AI sector by fivefold.

While this comparison is purposefully provocative and lacks the nuance of a sophisticated valuation, it underscores the seismic shift underway in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries—where the focus is increasingly on enhancing the healthy, not just treating the sick. Viewed through this lens, The Enhanced Games emerges as a brilliant marketing showcase for its true purpose: to become the global leader in enhancement protocols. After witnessing a 45-year-old sprinter shatter the 100M world record, viewers could visit an Enhanced Clinic and opt into the same protocol as that athlete. While regulators will face significant challenges, this marks the dawn of a new sector in the healthcare economy—one with an addressable market that includes not just the ill, but everyone else as well.

Importantly, The Enhanced Games is not alone in pushing the boundaries of human biology. Variant Bio, backed by Lux Capital, is assembling a comprehensive library of human genetic mutations. This effort could uncover new pathways for drug development or genetic therapies. Performance-enhancing mutations in one individual could be mapped, refined, and transferred to another, offering health and optimization benefits.

Though we are in the early stages today, the next five years could see the emergence of a vibrant and sophisticated biological optimization industry.

Retiring At 100 Years Old

Perhaps the first cohort of benefactors to these trends over the next 5 years will be our aging baby boomer population. As the most health-conscious and financially prepared aging cohort in history, their pursuit of a healthier, longer life may well fuel the burgeoning Enhanced Economy.

It's about building the future of humanity where aging is optional and that we can overcome our limits

This movement isn’t just about living longer—it’s about redefining the future of humanity, where aging becomes a choice and our biological limits can be transcended.

Imagine a 65-year-old enhanced sprinter breaking the 100M Olympic record. Such a feat would shatter our current perceptions of what it means to be ‘senior’ and could trigger a societal shift in how we view retirement. As Aron D’Souza suggests, this could lead us to reconsider the very notion of retirement, emphasizing the potential of enhancing our aging populations rather than merely caring for them.

Science already demonstrates the profound benefits of these enhancements: accelerated injury recovery, preserved muscle mass, and fortified skeletal structures. The evidence is mounting, yet societal acceptance lags behind. A similar trajectory can be observed in the realm of longevity science, once considered fringe but now steadily gaining recognition in mainstream healthcare. This critical shift is drawing in the funding and talent necessary to propel these innovations forward.

It’s clear to me that we are on the cusp of a global initiative, akin to a Manhattan Project for human biology. Now is the time to let science thrive, to ask the hard questions, experiment boldly, and validate our findings—unhindered by outdated constraints.

‍

The future is calling. Onwards!