New Delhi, April 22 -- Seventeen years ago, biomedical engineering sparked controversy when South African Paralympian Oscar Pistorius, nicknamed the 'Blade Runner', qualified for the 2008 Olympics. Critics argued his Flex-Foot Cheetah prosthetic legs gave him an unfair edge over able-bodied runners, a claim that was dismissed by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).

At the 2012 London Paralympics, Pistorius made history by winning gold in both the men's 400 metres and 4x100 metres relay.

While this human-machine endeavour may have rattled many, machines have also been independently outperforming humans at games. For instance, IBM's Deep Blue beat chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov in 1996-97, and its Watson system...