Project Vision 21

Goya: “El sueño de la razón produce monstruos” (Public domain)

There was a time—not so long ago—when every now and then a story would surface that was so unexpected, so distinct from the rest, that it invited the reader to pause, ponder, and perhaps even share it. Today, in an age when every piece of news is designed only to trigger a flicker of attention and a quick reaction, such moments of genuine discovery have become painfully rare.

Yet, they still exist.

Take, for instance, the recent announcement that from August 15 to 17, 2025, Beijing will host the first-ever World Humanoid Robot Sports Games—essentially, an Olympics for robots. This event is worth more than just a passing glance. It deserves deep reflection, not only because it’s something new, but because it signals a profound shift: once again, a space once reserved for human beings is no longer exclusively ours.

Yes, it’s clear that this “Olympics” is, at heart, a promotional showcase for cutting-edge technology—an effort to push new products into the market. But still, humanoid robots created by the world’s most powerful corporations are expected to compete in events modeled after traditional human sports: races, gymnastics, even soccer.

Which raises the question: How long will it be before human Olympic Games include humanoid participants? And how long after that before human athletes are replaced—or pushed aside—by their robotic counterparts, just as machines are already doing in fields ranging from repetitive labor to the most creative endeavors?

What we’re witnessing is a real-world situation that, not long ago, could only be imagined in science fiction. But today, the boundary between fiction and reality has become so thin, so entangled, that it’s increasingly difficult to tell where one ends and the other begins. And when that line blurs, when reality disguises itself as fantasy and fantasy takes root in reality, reason—the human capacity to think clearly—begins to fall asleep. And when reason sleeps, we begin to dream monsters.

This is not a new insight.

As far back as 1799, Spanish painter Francisco de Goya captured it in plate 43 of his haunting series Los Caprichos. The image, titled The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, shows a man slumped over his desk, head resting on folded arms, as he is surrounded by eerie, nightmarish creatures—perhaps figments of a dream, or perhaps something darker, more monstrous.

But what kind of “sleep” was Goya referring to? Some suggest he was depicting literal dreams or daydreams. Others—perhaps more perceptively—believe Goya was warning about what happens when reason itself, our ability to understand the world and act responsibly within it, falls dormant.

Today, our “sleeping reason”—our failure to reach our true potential despite having access to astonishing technologies—is being magnified by artificial intelligence. As cognitive scientist John Vervaeke warns, AI may be eroding our autonomy not by overpowering our reason, but by dulling it—by encouraging habits of irrationality that distance us from the very essence of what it means to be human.