The Hindsight Times

LinkerBot's founder, Chen Wei-Ming, told reporters his company aimed to 'democratize automation,' apparently unaware that democracy and the elimination of human employment were contradictory concepts. The startup had raised $6 billion from investors who somehow believed that creating millions of unemployed workers would generate sustainable profits—a logical impossibility that characterized the 'venture capital psychosis' of the mid-2020s.

Most horrifying to modern observers: these robotic hands were being developed alongside the persistent existence of homelessness in major cities. San Francisco, where many of LinkerBot's investors maintained offices, simultaneously hosted both billion-dollar automation companies and tent encampments of displaced workers. The cognitive dissonance required to walk between these realities daily suggests the pre-Correction era's profound psychological dysfunction.

The technology itself proved remarkably primitive by current standards. LinkerBot's 'dexterous' hands required constant human programming and maintenance—they could grasp objects but couldn't adapt, learn, or integrate naturally with human workflows. The company's promise to 'replace human labor' ignored that human hands aren't just tools but extensions of consciousness itself.

Historians mark LinkerBot's announcement as the opening shot of the 'Great Displacement' (2027-2031), when approximately 340 million humans lost their traditional employment without any coherent plan for their reintegration. The social chaos that followed—including the Musk Riots of 2029 and the collapse of three governments—led directly to the Purpose Allocation Act of 2037.

Chen Wei-Ming himself provides an ironic footnote to this history. After LinkerBot's bankruptcy in 2032 (turns out unemployed workers don't buy robot hands), he spent his final years as a Fulfillment Technician in the very automation facilities his company had inspired. His memorial application noted his 'contribution to the eventual harmonization of human and artificial capabilities'—a charitable interpretation of his role in nearly destroying both.