MMA and hockey fights are neurologically unethical.

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I started a discussion that got heated on my wall a few months back about ending boxing and MMA as sports. Here's a medical journal editor with a similar view, calling for an end to fighting and head shots in hockey. Here's how the doc puts it:

"Still, many players insist that hard-hitting checks and fighting are just part of the fast-paced game and it's unrealistic to believe those aspects can be dissected out of the sport. Kale is aware of that attitude, but said he has a question for those players: "Do you want to be rich, famous and demented and dead at 40? "They need to think about that seriously. They must be clear in their mind that there is a huge risk in this for themselves.""

My argument has been that young men playing hockey, and young men training to seriously compete in MMA, by in large (and it's a good guess that 99% or more of them fall into this category) do not understand the risks, and do not understand that a concussion means permanent damage. MMA rewards permanently damaging one's brain for the entertainment of others. Not cool, Zeus. Not cool.




Those of us in the transhumanist movement can't ethically support MMA, and saying that MMA fighters are making an informed decision gives way too much credit to young guys who are rarely educated beyond high school. I'm not trying to diminish them; it took me until graduate school to start getting even an elementary grasp of neurology. The idea of MMA guys or hockey players sitting around reading neurology or psychology textbooks and then making an informed decision to fight is laughable.