Hard to say when my brain became a cyborg. I saw it during the plague. We were, around the world, coming out. I was in the middle of changing legs. My old leg, the Ottobock C-Leg, started making noise. I could feel my leg to think, or whatever the term means when our machine tools complete the task.
I went to a surgeon and he introduced me to a new device called Freedom Innovations Plié Knee. Obviously, he refers to the knee after the ballet move.
Where to sell? It had removable batteries. I may have an extra battery in my wallet. I would no longer have to hang myself on the wall to pay for it.
Why was the surgeon so happy? Money, maybe. But he did not say that. They never say that. He told me that I liked the new leg — he always did — and that it would be light. Very light.
I weigh 100 pounds, so any weight from the machine becomes an issue.
A salesman at Freedom Innovations gave me a swag — a T-shirt, a chain of keys.
At the next meeting, he did not know why Plié was having an affair. Why did I fall on my concrete path and receive letters? Why did the leg not understand the following and the rejection?
I think he says the collapse was due to “user failure.” This is what prosthetic companies say: “It should be your problem. Technology is good. “
I left in the house, in the first months of the plague, by laying feet. I did everything I could to drive my car — to the grocery store, to the gas station — but I never got out of the car. My listener came in. I ended up in a car with a leg that I did not like and my box of painkillers. I was born crippled from Agent Orange. I am an independent fighter in two wars: Vietnam and the Opioids War. Another battle hurt me; another war threatens to keep me in it.
I saw people coming in and going out of the store. How easy it was to walk. This one quick, quick, come in and out. The other one is walking, stopping to put on his mask, looking back at his car.
Can I get used to a new leg? Did it just take action? Why did it all hurt so much?
For the first time, changing legs, I was with my cyborg friend. I hired a cyborg Amy Gaeta be my assistant. He is a PhD student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. There’s a lot we don’t have to explain to each other because we all have a cyborg role. That is why we can skip the falsehoods about luck, opportunity, opportunity to always reach out, and find fantasy.
I always follow Director Yoshiko Dart: If you have money, hire people with disabilities.
It was because I was chatting with another cyborg that I realized my brain was already a cyborg. Amy is autistic. They study drones, so our discussions often lead to how martial arts develop the human brain, neurodivergent and neurotypical perceptions, and why it is difficult to communicate with a person suffering from trauma.
So I already knew that my body was a cyborg. I know since 2010, when I published “Going to Cyborg”In The New York Times. It was easy to explain my cyborg personality to everyone.