Real Life Science Fiction

I picked up a volume of short stories by William Gibson a couple of weeks ago (Burning Chrome). I think I may have read this book before, because some of the stories were familiar. One in particular, The Winter Market, hit me. The way I remembered this story, and the way it read this time were completely different. But there were too many details that were the same, that I had never seen anywhere else, that it had to be the same story. There is a girl, young woman actually, who is wearing a black exoskeleton. She needs it to be able to move because of a serious defect. I remembered the story as being kind of upbeat and cheerful and going places. But this time, if it even is the same story, it is grim and sad and not very happy at all.

Then this shows up in the paper today and I think OMFG, there it is: the exoskeleton of science fiction, here now and live.

Jan Schumacher and her prosthetic hand

In this case it's not actually an exoskelton, it's a prosthetic for fingers she lost during a major medical disaster a few years ago. Now she's a guinea pig for the robotics guys.

Part II

Neal Stephenson posted this on Facebook today:

I never thought they would EVER be able to do something like this. What's worse is they did it without my help.

Update October 2026 replaced missing image.