Chapter 9 - The Unfinished Work
Success was a complex beast. The media attention that followed the gala was overwhelming. Reporters wanted to know the secret to the neural link. Competitors wanted to know if the technology could be licensed.
But Claire was focused on something else. She began a series of nationwide tours, visiting hospitals, schools, and community centers. She wasn't selling machines; she was listening.
"The design is too cold," a mother in a Chicago clinic told her. "My son is scared of it."
Claire took notes. She worked with Mason to make the machines warmer, more responsive, more "human."
She learned that the most difficult part of the job wasn't the engineering; it was the trust. People were afraid that the machines would replace them, that their humanity would be rendered obsolete by lines of code.
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"Technology is the bridge," Claire explained to a group of skeptical hospital administrators. "It’s not the destination. It should take us to a place where we have more time to care for each other, not less."
She was tired, her body pushed to the limit, but she felt a joy she hadn't known since before the accident. She was doing what she had set out to do.
