Kanta na Enquete desu Chapter 14

Cyborgs had become fairly widespread, but they had not overcome the barrier of the human form. If the silhouette of the human body was altered too much, specialized movement software had to be installed which seemed to alter the human mind into something else.

Due to this, humans still operated tools with their fingers and used pens to write or draw.

However…

"Honey, look. It's a frying pan with artificial skin attached. Because of the heat detection sensors, it says we can say goodbye to burnt food!"

"That soft, flesh-colored frying pan scares me!! It looks like an evil book from the Cthulhu mythos!!"

"This ladle has lips. It tastes the contents and displays the result numerically. How cute."

These pots and cutting boards and the like with incredibly realistic human ears or noses or whatever attached were known as Half Appliances. I could not understand how my young wife could be calling them "cute". Perhaps I was just an old-fas.h.i.+oned type of person.

I of course understood that it was nothing more than using cyborg technology to attach sensors that surpa.s.sed the ability of the human senses, but still.

"Honey, are you bored because this is the cooking section?"

"N-no, that's not it. I just find it suspicious that an area filled with ears and noses can be called the 'cooking section'."

"I guess a guy would prefer the section with the digital cameras and such. I think they have ones with eyeb.a.l.l.s for seeing super long distances."

"That's scary!! That's really scary!! Am I the only one that finds an SLR camera that blinks and has eyelashes to be horrifying!?"

Crime rates had dropped ever since eyeb.a.l.l.s had been attached to security cameras, but I thought that was because it made you feel there was some strange, raw gaze on your back.

They were very unpopular when used in apartment complexes or hotels.

"Oh, right. Honey, you said you wanted some tools for yard work, right? I think they have the lawnmowers over there."

"All I see are machines with multiple arms covered in sharp fingernails and machines with mouths filled with tons of giant human teeth."

"Yes. Those might be a bit big for our house."

What my young wife was saying seemed a bit off. Actually, looking at society at large, it might have been my opinion that was a bit off.

I didn't like how they had attached realistic human eyes and noses to the front of bullet trains as sensors. I knew it was more efficient that way, but I just didn't like it.

The shape of humans themselves had not changed too much.

However, the technology still remained. And the idea of a more convenient life in the future had remained as well. However, to reach it, the technology had spread to everything around humans rather than the humans themselves.

Thanks to this, cell phones had ear drums built in and portable game systems had artificial synapses inside.

The way of the world changed quickly.

Just as adults had once been unable to keep up with the society of the internet, I was unable to keep up with these psychedelic changes to the scenery.

"Do you want a new electric razor?"

"You need to replace the artificial blood in those too quickly, so no."

"Yes, filling it with oxygen again and again wears it out."

"Speaking of artificial blood, we need to replace the blood in the fridge before long, don't we? They're having a sale over there."

"We can't. Ours is a Carrier QW2. It can't use Type B. But we should buy some cerebrospinal fluid. The flyer mentioned a multi-pack."

On our way, we pa.s.sed by a dog-type pet robot. It seemed to be a display model. It was a product that would bleed if you hurt it but would cause no guilt if you broke it.

"I wonder if these appliances will ever take on the same form as humans."

If they developed that far, I felt the grotesqueness would disappear.

But…

"We can't have that."

"Why not?"

"Because then we would just leave everything to the appliances and never move an inch. That's no different from being bedridden."

Perhaps she was right.

Old peddler ladies from the old days had carried around an unbelievable amount of things without much trouble.

"But…"

"What is it, honey?"

"Then I'm not sure who controls who."

"I mean." I paused for a second. "We buy all these tools to make our own lives easier, but the strength of our legs and back are being decided by how convenient these tools are. …You could almost say that we are being remade into forms that make it easier to use these appliances."