Challenge #01710-D249: The Independence Initiative

Gadgets sold on Marketing T.V. turn up on Amalgam. -- Anon Guest

Honesty in advertising has changed a great many things. No longer are items sold as the best in the market. Or a fabulous new invention for the lazy. Instead of being marketed to everyone, they are marketed to their target audience first.

The smiling cogniscent on the screen was aesthetically appealing to a majority of Galactic Society. Since her discipline was Entertainment, she wore something sparkly. "Here at the Assistance Institute, scientists and designers are working around the clock to make your life easier. Assistive technicians and people who need assistance work together to find the best solutions for everyday tasks that would otherwise be out of reach."

The camera panned away from the aesthetically pleasing lizard to show a cogniscent with motor control issues focussing all hir effort on picking up a spork with a looped handle. The tool end had stability control technology, so that it didn't spill so much as one drop of the virulently green test liquid. The cogniscent laughed and turned to the proud techie at hir elbow. "Looks good so far."

The camera moved to other tests. Reaching tools. Grasping tools. Tools for helper animals that were tested with trainers and owners in the same space. "No matter what trouble you may have," continued the voice of the lizard presenter, "we aim to give you more independence than the levels you're used to."

Now it was in a lab environment where a cogniscent with withered limbs was being fitted into a sleek-looking exoskeleton. The lovely lizard reappeared with an omnimic. "Who's in the test arena, today, Marlek?"

Techie Marlek introduced the cogniscent in the exoskeleton. "This is Toby. Ze's suffered from a progressive muscle-wasting disease that we're still engineering a counter-virus for. In the meantime, we've made this responsive exoskeleton that measures Toby's neural impulses and augments the muscles that are remaining."

Another techie finished installing the comms that allowed Toby to speak. "It's been a pain in the anatomy," said hir synthetic voice. "My progress has been too rapid for existing technology to keep up with. I've seen life as I knew it waste away in the time it took to fabricate the next assistive device."

"I can understand how that could be disheartening." The lizard presenter stood back and allowed the camera to focus on what the techies were doing. "I understand that this is adapted from extant exoskeletons made for heavy lifting, and assisting low-grav cogniscents to operate in heavier gravity wells?"

Techie Marlek appeared to be the designated spokesperson. "That's correct, Lors. We were able to use extant patterns for most of the printing, but the circuitry needed a week for the redesign."

The other techies stood back. Toby flexed hir arms on cue. Wriggled hir legs. Flexed hir head. One techie said, "Okay. Slow and careful at first. Let us know if anything hurts."

Carefully and slowly, Toby sat up. Stood up. There was a bit of lurching, but Toby could walk almost normally. Ze could sort simple shapes into a toy meant for infants. Ze picked up a pen and wrote the word, Freedom! on the nearby whiteboard. Hir synthetic voice said, "You'll have to fight me to get it off me, now."

Applause and back-patting all round. One techie said, "We're still working on making it Cleanser-proof. Sorry."

"I don't care," said Toby. "I want to go shopping. By myself."

"Alright, but let us fit the solar panels, first."

The camera went back to Lors and Techie Marlek. "What's next for this exo design, Marlek?"

"We're already working on a direct neural interface for patients with incurable Locked In Syndromes. Current augmentations involve invasive surgery and neural docking. As you might know, that often causes more trouble than it solves. In order to have complete freedom, a patient would need real-time brain scans that augment extant bio-electrical impulses and bypass the blockage to influence the muscles as it would normally occur."

"That's going to help quite a lot of people," said Lors.

"Indeed. We have twenty patients eager to try the next iteration."

The words, Freedom For All! faded onto the screen as the rest faded to black, and a tiny little anthem played.

Shayde, who had been watching, blinked at the info-screen that showed the multitude of ways that she could donate and help out the Assistance Institute. "Demtel," she said, "that ain't."

[AN: You do know that most of the Infomercial TV gadgets are meant to help the elderly and the disabled, right?]

[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / tomwang]

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