[Excerpt taken from the Grimmtek. Archives]
“Are you a couch potato? Have you ever wanted to be able to dance, but never been able to put in the time to learn? Do you want to be able to impress the ladies with your crazy dancing skills? If so, the Grimm Shoe is the Implant for you. This modern marvel utilizes nanotechnology, implanting a microchip directly in the brain stem. With this implant, you no longer have to worry about your own dancing, because the Grimm Shoe will take care of it for you. Just think of a movement, and the Grimm Shoe will match it to one of over nine thousand dance moves in its extensive databank. It then sends neurological signals to your legs, arms and other relevant muscle groups, causing them to move, and you to hop, skip or jump your way across the floor with the skill of a pro, with the time commitment you love.”
[Excerpt from “Grimm Shoe: More Trouble than it's Worth?” NYTimes]
The Grimm Shoe is a sensation that's been literally sweeping the nation off it's feet. This ingenious little implant can transform even guys and girls with two left feet into dancers of amazing grace and skill, but is it all it's chalked up to be? About only a week after the release of the Shoe, Grimm started receiving its first complaints from customers. One unexpected effect of the shoe was the provoking of the heat detecting nerves in the body, primarily those of the feet and legs. Some people are unable to stop themselves from dancing. The Artificial Intelligence imbedded in one batch of the Shoe was faulty and was beginning to go out of control, randomly sending dancing signals to the legs of these users. Mostly, these incidents were harmless and isolated, until the Shoe caused postal worker Phil Williams to swerve into the oncoming traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge, causing a massive pileup and the death of four. Due to a public outcry at this, Grimmtek. recalled all their Shoe implants, updating the software and adding protective measures to prevent the chip from sending unwanted signals. Since then, there have been no reports of faulty chips, but the question of everyone's mind is, “Will we have another Philliams?”
[Excerpt from “The End of 21st Century Technology” by R. J. Thomas]
It didn't take long for the Grimm Shoe to regain popularity, even after the incident with Phil Williams. Grimmtek placed guarantee after guarantee behind their implant, spent over 200 hours testing and retesting its safety and Peter Grimm, the CEO and founder of the company, had the chip installed in himself to show the world that he was confident in his creation. His confidence was misplaced. On March 4, 2023, a computer virus was released for the chip and spread via wireless uplink, establishing itself in every implant. Stage one of the virus was silent and stealthy, unobtrusively entering the chip though a loophole in a logic gate. The virus was not detected until 12:00PM when it entered stage two. Around the world, three hundred and twenty million [320,000,000] people stood up and began to dance. Within minutes, hundreds of thousands were dead, as planes crashed and automobiles swerved off bridges and roads. At 12:05PM, emergency phone lines were flooded with calls about burning feet as the virus stimulated the heat sensing nerves in the lower body. Five hours later, stage three of the virus started. At 5:00PM, a tragically simple program took effect, and all over the world, though primarily in Japan, America and Europe, millions of exhausted people began to climb to the highest heights they could find, and throw themselves off. At 6:00PM, its task complete, the virus deactivated. A fraction of the implantees were able to survive, due to living in areas without high heights. The terrorists behind the virus were never caught or identified, and the purpose of the attack was never discovered. This event started the movement away from high technology and computers. Automated systems all around the world were shut down for fear of a repeat attack, and the main work force became human once more.
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