I hope by writing this weekly column skewering some of the dumb products developed by the industrial world that we will all re-evaluate our consumeristic tendencies and reduce the market for silly stuff. I’m now hoping I’m not too successful as I may be forcing some future race of cyborgs on a parallel time plane to come back and extinguish me before I write again.
Why the paranoid delusions?
This week’s nominee is making me wonder how far we’re willing to go to avoid physical labor: Honda’s robot legs. Honda has developed this prototype designed to provide skeletal support to factory workers with plans for a production model. The idea is that plant floor machinists and assemblymen spend too much time on their legs, which has negative health effects on the workers. So instead of providing more breaks or shorter work hours, presto we have this over-engineered way of keeping them at it.
I kind of wonder how much of an improvement it really is. As the video here shows, the seat appears pretty snug. I’d hate to have gained all that productivity to then have lost it in all the tubes of DZ Nuts you’ll have to buy to keep using this.
Now, there are legitimate non-industrial applications to this. I can see how this could really help improve the quality of life for an amputee. Plus you could really sell some shoes. Unfortunately much like Viagra, as soon as the small group of legitimate users get this wonder, it will only be a short matter of time before thousands of Americans too lazy to use a Segway line up at Sharper Image to buy one of these things.
I just hope the cyborgs show up to ice me before that day comes.
Can Austin Bike Blog survive a cyborg attack from the future?
Enjoy your weekend, and get out and ride your bike.
Read the previous week’s Dumbest Product of the Week.
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