Art Imitates Life

A few months ago I sold a story called Second-Hand Eyes. The premise was that implanted medical equipment (in this case, eyes) could stop being supported and leave users out of luck.

I thought I was being cleverly futuristic. But I just read an article in IEEE dated several months before my story with the title Their Bionic Eyes Are Now Obsolete and Unsupported.

The title pretty much says it all. The tech in the article gives partial sight (patches of light and dark). One patient called his therapist at the company, and was told that everyone had been laid off. When the devices fail, they may stop working or may leave the patients with vertigo and headaches.

I heard about the article while reading a different article by Cory Doctorow. He makes the completely ridiculous point that perhaps capitalistic incentives aren’t ideal when dealing with health/medical issues.

For my next story, I’m going to invent a mobile device that you can carry in your pocket and use to make phone calls.