Bonum Certa Men Certa

These Feet Are Made for Walking

posted by Roy Schestowitz on May 22, 2025,
updated May 22, 2025

A set of bike racks in Munich, Germany.

Species predating humans developed legs and feet with toes; those limbs were proven useful for versatile motion on land. No more fish, tadpole-like organisms (or microorganisms). Heck, even many insects have many pairs of legs. Humans have only one pair. Some animals have "hands". Some use a "trunk" like a hand. Birds have "wings".

Humans are apparently so very clever that they decided to form a "progressive" consensus: feet no more. Legs? That's just to get a person to the loo or to the car. Health implications? Unknown, an ongoing experiment. The term "dead butt syndrome" became a thing because many people spent too much time on keyboards and sometimes - when no other means availed themselves - went into a heavy vessel with "power steering" and another computer with touchscreens.

Set aside the bad impact on the planet (environment), never mind personal health.

All About Gluteal Amnesia (‘Dead Butt Syndrome’)

As noted this morning, citing this older post, when geeks say "computer breaks" they typically mean exercise, as in moving parts of one's body that aren't just fingers or eyeballs.

The demanding nature of the work at the EPO (chasing "targets" in defiance of physical limitations) left many staff with Upper Limb Disorder (ULD) [1, 2]. Some are permanently disabled. I spoke to some. They're unable to use a computer for longer than a few hours a day. They're in pain. Heavy users of skinnerboxes (most commonly called "smartphones") have similar symptoms or syndromes. Earlier this week at a local coffee shop we saw a young couple facing each other and, instead of talking to one another, they both scrolled on their skinnerboxes. Thumb exercise? When their food finally arrived they almost set aside the skinnerboxes. Almost.

The nature of many of today's jobs will motivate people to believe that it's normal/benign to barely move ("everyone is doing it!"), or to barely even walk from place to place. It can be a global health crisis, wherein it's becoming more and more "normal" (over time) to not know how to interact with other people (they'll just blame it on "genetics" and over-diagnose it as ADHD). We're already at the stage where people are denied access to staff (too much "computing", e.g. "self-checkout") and people cannot stand on their feet doing some job for 8 hours because they're too accustomed to sitting on their butt. Future generations will look back at us with scorn, perhaps pointing out that over-use and over-enthusiasm over lousy technology (like useless "apps" and slop) left the world worse off than in Byzantine times.

More tech ≠ better: $1999 for a device that tells you the time

I stopped driving a very long time ago. Walking, running and cycling will always be healthier than even the "smartest" of automobiles (whatever "smart" even means these days; status symbols with plastic and batteries). Walking from A to B isn't a sign of being of a "low class" but of having better health awareness, maybe common sense. Almost anyone can buy a car these days (on some 3- or 5-year installment plan, i.e. pretty much renting the thing until warranty runs out).

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