The leg doesn’t fail slowly.
It powers down.
Mateo is mid-step when the knee locks.
Concrete meets teeth.
The factory line keeps moving.
Payment terminated per contract.
In this world, you don’t own your prosthetic limbs. You subscribe to their function. Work stops. Payment stops. Function stops.
Not cruelty. Optimization.
The contract:
APPENDIX J: Bedrock Synergy Series 3 Prosthetic - User Agreement & End-of-Life Protocol
This End-User License Agreement (EULA) constitutes a binding contract between the Lessee of Biological Enhancement Services (”User”) and the Bedrock Corporation (”Provider”). Activation of the Product constitutes full acceptance of these terms.
1.0 Grant of License: The Provider grants the User a revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to operate the Synergy Series 3 Mobility Asset (”the Product”) for the duration of their employment contract. Ownership of the Product, including all hardware, software, and firmware, remains the sole property of the Provider.
2.0 Data Ownership & Monetization: The User agrees that all biometric and performance data generated by the Product is the sole and exclusive property of the Provider. The Provider retains the right to use this data for research, development, and third-party monetization without compensation.
3.0 Performance-Contingent Operation: The functionality of the Product is linked to the User’s real-time Performance Index and Synergy Score. A sustained drop in productivity, failure to meet financial obligations, or breach of brand loyalty will be classified as a “sub-optimal user state.”
3.1 Corrective Actions: Upon a sub-optimal user state, Provider may initiate corrective actions: electrical compliance stimulation; restricted mobility protocol; or chemical stabilization.
3.2 Remote Decommissioning: Upon contract termination or Class-A compliance failure, Provider executes a remote asset deactivation protocol. All motor functions cease. Product becomes inert.
4.0 End-of-Life Protocol: This agreement includes mandatory enrollment in the Human Capital Donation Program. Upon the User’s “involuntary asset depreciation” (death), the Product must be returned. The User’s remaining biological matter is considered a voluntary, pre-approved donation to the Provider’s Post-Mortal Strategies Division for R&D.
5.0 Financial Continuity: Outstanding lease balances may be transferred to next-of-kin.
Activation constitutes acknowledgment that the User does not own the limb, only its temporary function.
I wrote this after watching everything become a subscription. Software. Cars. Tractors. Bodies next. Systems don’t stop themselves. Someone has to say no.
In the novel, Mateo stands before a tribunal and places his deactivated prosthetic limbs on the table:
“I’m not here to be fixed. I’m here so this doesn’t get reframed. So when they write the history, they can’t call it ‘legacy hardware depreciation.’ They have to call it what it is: Mutilation. Abandonment. Extraction down to the bone.”
The work of cultivation is refusing to let horror be optimized into acceptable language.
OR, OPTIMISM™ releases [publication date TBD]. More excerpts coming.
—U. Ortego
San Antonio Palopó, Guatemala
https://www.optimism-tm.com/
We already rent software, cars, tractors, even heated seats.
This is just the next step: bodies as subscriptions.
If work stops, function stops.
What happens when survival runs on AutoPay?