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Fifteen Million Merits
Season 1 Episode 2
Overall Progress: 50%
✔ Achieved❌ Not yet achieved
In a world where people earn currency by riding exercise bikes and are bombarded by screens, a young man tries to help a woman escape their oppressive system.
Fictional Tech/Societal Changes
- 🔹❌Gamified labor economy
- 🔹❌Omnipresent digital advertising
- 🤖❌Virtual reality entertainment
- 🔹❌Commodification of talent
How Close Are We?
Elements of this episode are increasingly present: gig economy apps gamify work (Uber, DoorDash), digital advertising is omnipresent (YouTube, mobile games), and virtual reality entertainment is growing (Meta Quest, VRChat). Talent commodification is seen in reality TV and influencer culture. However, a fully immersive, closed-loop system as depicted does not yet exist, but the trends are converging in that direction.