Pablo Torre's Latest Investigation Dives Into China Potentially Harvesting Brain Data From Elite Athletes Like Jannik Sinner And Mikaela Shiffrin Through a Fancy Electronic Headband
Pablo Torre has quickly turned into this investigative journalist who uncovers a bunch of sketchy shit in sports. When he comes knocking you're getting exposed. His work comes off a little bit like old school Deadspin, before they turned into the worst people on Earth. Obviously you're aware of Pablo's work with the Bill Belichick/Jordon Hudson dynamic at UNC as well as exposing Kawhi Leonard's under the table deal to circumvent the NBA's salary cap via a "no show" endorsement agreement. Torre has dug his teeth dip into that Clippers story and won't let go. Adam Silver and the NBA now have all the pressure in the world to lay down the hammer on the Clippers all because his Pablo Torre's work.
His next mission appears to be zeroed in on a company called FocusCalm and their parent company BrainCo. in regards to their ties to China. Turns out big named athletes like Jannik Sinner, Iga Swiatek, and Mikaela Shiffrin are known users of FocusCalm headbands. Hmmm….
These headbands are used to track all sorts of brain data and aim to assist mental training that increases your focus while calming the mind. A bunch of NCAA teams are using these as well as olympic organizations.
(source) BrainCo, a neurotechnology company that branded itself as Harvard-founded, has apparently harvested brain wave data from schoolchildren and elite athletes — including the world’s #2 tennis player, Formula 1 champions, and Olympic gold medalists. Its flagship products — wearable EEG headbands — collect and analyze brain wave data of the users to help improve their focus, the company claims.
State media discusses “super soldiers“ with neural enhancements. The People’s Liberation Army has hosted national BCI competitions, and its medical research arm has partnered with private companies to develop BCI products for memory and attention training for soldiers.
Three Democratic U.S. senators warned in April about the potential exploitation of sensitive neural data, saying that Chinese companies are developing “purported brain-control weaponry.”
So the way I'm digesting this, we're looking at a few possible situations…
Scenario 1: Probably the least harmful to the world. The Chinese are attempting to create the perfect tennis player who can disrupt the Carlos Alcaraz/Jannik Sinner renaissance that's occurring in the sport these days.
Scenario 2: I'd describe this as not ideal, but better than the other two below. China is using this brain data from elite athletes to locate similar patterns in their own people where they can identify humans in their early development stages who would best fit a future pro athlete/soldier's mindset above the rest.
Scenario 3: Very bad option. The Chinese are attempting to use brain data from athletes like Jannik Sinner to create the perfect super soldier humanod in their military.
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(source) Named one of the “Six Little Dragons” alongside China’s tech champions like AI leader DeepSeek, BrainCo has integrated its technology directly into humanoid robots made by fellow Little Dragon Unitree — a company that Congress has warned is a tool of China’s People’s Liberation Army.
Think about it. These athletes are the best in the world when it comes to reaction time, hand eye coordination, and the handling of pressurized situations. All things you'd want in a soldier at war.
Scenario 4: Also bad. China is stealing Jannik Sinner's brainwaves to better enhance its AI. Kinda like reverse Matrix where instead of the human downloading the intelligence, the intelligence is downloading the human.
Scenarios three and four are not fun for us. Scenario one would be fascinating, but I bet Carlos Alcaraz would still find a way to beat this super athlete. Three and four though? Oh yeah, big trouble. We can't have that.
Is it possible I sound a bit like Dante here and I'm buying into this China fear mongering nonsense too much? Of course, but there's some pretty concerning evidence here that BrainCo is up to no good with this FocusCalm brain data. I don't really care if China takes my data as that can honestly only hurt them. You want my porn history? Oh no China, you got me, I love Alina Lopez. But Jannik Sinner's brainwaves to create the world's most deadly super solder? That's where I put my foot down. If this is true we gotta counter this and make them think they're reading Sinner's data, but it's actually Mintzy. Good ol' trojan horse them and destroy the country from the inside. It's genius.
P.S. Pablo Torre is poking around a little too much. This guy needs to be careful what kind of major power he pisses off.