It was actually an experiment by the ruling class, to determine just how much the could demean the serfs in their quest to maximize exploitation of serf talent and labor. It also functioned quite well as incubator and exchange point for every communicable disease imaginable, occasionally even STDs, and was responsible for many local epidemics. According to one serf whose account I read, he labored in one for 20 years, before threat of a global pandemic forced an end to the experiment, in the belief the disease exchange effect could result in such large losses that the system would break; in any case, advances in technology had already it made it possible to demean and exploit the serfs in the same (as well as new and interesting) without the serfs ever leaving their own hovels.
Eh – I drove my 1979 Lincoln Continental because it only cost me $4oo to buy (and a couple thousand and several days to get running), it was a beautiful car in spite of what a couple hundred thousand miles of hard use and neglect had done to it, and it was shockingly comfortable.
Actually, I believe, he has an ongoing “feud” with Jef Mallett and his character Jeff the Cyclist is a caricature of Jef Mallett and his character Frazz. Pretty sure I read that somewhere.
The average retail drone is slower than a zeeba. In fact, odds are the retail drone leaped into the croc’s mouth sighing “finally, the sweet relief of death”.
I see how it is. Jef puns all he wants and nobody complains, Stephan puns and it’s time for the pitchforks and torches. Double standard! :P