The trend spread. GELFs, Genetically Engineered Life Forms, were everywhere,
and soon virtually every consumer product was made of living tissue. Gelf
armchairs, which could sense your mood, and massage your shoulders when
you were feeling tense, became a part of everyday life. Gelf vacuum
cleaners, which were half kitchen appliance, half family pet,
waddled around on their squat little legs, doing the household chores and
amusing the children. [...]
The rebellion started in the Austrian town of Salzburg, when a vacuum cleaner
and Gelf Volkswagen Beetle robbed a high street bank. They took the manager
and a security guard hostage, agreeing to release them only if Valter Holman
was brought to justice for murder.
Valter Holman had killed his armchair, and the whole of the Gelf community
was up in arms, those that had arms, because the law courts refused to accept
that a crime had been committed.