Programmed Obsolescence
One evening on the top of the hill, Sean told HIM about how things had become obsolete. “In the ’20s of the last century”, Sean started, “the big automotive manufacturers launched new models of cars every year to keep engaged the customers even if the previous model works perfectly, on that way the economy grew on industrialized countries like this” , “several appliances,” Sean continued, “was programmed to reduce their lifetime, so that the peoples was pushed to buy new appliances even if they actually don’t need, they became in compulsive consumers”. “My grandfather told me that when he finished the college, he had about 10 different mobile phones”. HIM said that he knew what a mobile phone was, but he had never seen one. “It doesn’t exist anymore” said Sean. “Now all citizens we have this thing”. Sean showed HIM a small gadget that he had attached to his head, the mindCom-7.
Once they got home, Sean asked HIM, “Do you want to see a mobile phone?”, and HIM moved his head positively. Sean kept an old model of a mobile phone. His father kept it before it as a relic, but it actually belonged to his grandfather, the Motorola StarTAC. Sean told HIM that it was the last mobile phone that his grandfather used. “It is still working, but now it is prohibited by law to use it”, said Sean, HIM had looking the device with curiosity between his hands. “Is better to keep hiding it” said HIM , “Gray Mother can know it” and Sean keep his eyes on HIM worrely.
One of the first mandates that the new government imposed after the Great Disengagement was to prohibit the repair of any device or electronic appliance by the citizens, even small devices like watches or ringbells can’t be repaired. All of them have to be returned to the stores on the due date or when it fails and get one on the basis of their citizen credits. Now everything has a due date; clothes, citizen credits, even the citizens. Sean never understood what the new government wanted with this rule. It did seeds the anger and frustration among the citizens.
In the village, a small group meets every 2 evenings in the basement of a different house to share technical knowledge and repair their own electronic devices or help someone that needs them, everything hidden in the eyes of “Gray Mother”. He went once with his coffee machine to have it repaired because he didn’t have enough credits to get a new one. At that moment, he understood that human beings always search for and find help under the worst circumstances.
One day, something unexpected happened. He didn’t wake up. Sean knows that this means returning the unit for replacement. All android units are under the control of the Humanoid Management Unit (HMU). He contacted the group and, after a quick review, the diagnostics were that the sensor that detects the dawn was failing. It has to be turned ON manually, and it is not an allowed action by law. In that case, the government asks to return the units, failing to replace them immediately.
The group suggest Sean return HIM before “Gray Mother” detects the failure and asks HMU to recover the unit. Sean have to return HIM voluntarily before they come for both.
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