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0437 - Lee's wellbeing. - 2026.02.16 |
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Comment: The callbacks continue! The actifit was referenced once before, in strip number ~Nice~, where Lee mentioned that they don't actually get additional benefits from going for a walk - or, at least, not in their musculature and metabolism. I noted in the commentary for that strip that "actifit" was a genericized former trademark, and that much of Forward's aesthetic is derived from the fact that as technology advances, it tends to become sleeker and more unobtrusive. Forward is science fiction, but not science fantasy, greebles for the sake of greeblage aren't really the vibe. Actifits are as common in 2167 as vasectomies or the removal of wisdom teeth are today, and just as invisible. And why wouldn't they be? Ever since the beginning of the Industrial Age - or maybe even the dawn of grain-based agriculture in the Fertile Crescent - when mass production of empty calories became the cheapest way to feed the poorest workers, weight management (which is to say, for most people and much of the medical establishment, fat removal) has been a top concern for much of our species. As I write this in 2026, the trendy buzzword in that space is some medication or other called Ozempic, touted and derided in equal measure by people who believe or don't believe that it's a magic Fat-B-Gone solution. With the geometric rise of technological progress, and the incentive of millions - if not billions - of people and their money, why wouldn't an actifit eventually be invented and made common? Why wouldn't it be trademarked, milked for every cred it could generate, and then, as Universal Basic Everything became the economic model across most of the Solar System, iterated and proliferated so broadly that the original creator could no longer compete with generics and gave up the ghost and the logo? So yes, just so this canon is firmly established, Lee has some sort of high tech invisible thing in their body that manages their metabolism and muscular development - much like their naturally purple irises and their studded-but-never-pierced-nostril and their uncut-yet-foreskinless cock, their physical appearance is entirely under their control and completely represents intentional choices that they've made... and yet, have never been satisfied with. And yes, while Nina is babysitting Lee's meathusk, it can not only manage the actifit's parameters, but also blink, swallow, and, when given authorization from the client or their physician, walk around and eat and poop. It's important to note that it can't vocalize through Lee's larynx, since that would be an AI generating a human voice, which, as we all know, falls under "impersonation" and is strictly illegal. Like... very strictly. As you might imagine, under the aforementioned UBE model, there is quite the financial incentive to mass produce fake mouths to feed, just as, in democracies that are becoming more and more direct and less and less representative, there is a strong political incentive to create fake voters. Also, no, I don't have a diagram or an exact model for where Lee's actifit is installed or how it works because, by definition, it hasn't been invented yet. Also, neither you nor I would care. Despite Forward's non-fantastical aesthetic, it's always been hard sci fi but soft science, a narrative for the humanities majors more than the STEMfolk. I may be on the spectrum, but my special interest is the human condition, not the minutiae of mass transit. That being said, if one of my readers does invent the actifit, I want a fat cut. We've got a century to suckle before we lose that trademark, UBE isn't the law of the land yet, and I think it'd be deliciously ironic if something that eliminated calories became my meal ticket. |
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