illphated
More Competition Is Better for You
More Competition Is Better for You: A Blade Runner Parable
In the smog-choked skyline of Neo-Hong Houston, where neon gods whispered promises through vaporwave fog and the rain fell like data packets, citizens didn’t vote—they competed.
A colossal holoboard crackled overhead, casting hues of electric pink and icy turquoise across the chrome streets below. The message, bright and unblinking, read:
“MORE COMPETITION IS BETTER FOR YOU! BETTER FOR EVERYBODY.”
Jax knew the slogan well. Everyone did. It was tattooed across ad drones, woven into school pledges, and piped through daily propaganda podcasts. But as a mid-tier coder in District 4B, Jax had just lost his job—to a more “competitive applicant” named Zeno, a smiley meat-shell pumped full of AI enhancers and corporate loyalty implants.
He should have been angry. Instead, he smiled.
Because in Neo-Hong Houston, the system didn’t just punish failure—it recycled it.
Jax pulled on his synth-wool trench coat and scanned his ID chip at the local ReCompete Hub. His resume would now be broadcast on the Open Market Grid, where gig-lords and megacorps could bid for his allegiance in real time. His body, his brain, his schedule—all fair game. All modular.
From the glowing alleyways, posters like the one he’d seen above loomed on every wall. A smiling man in an old-world business suit beamed beneath rising spires and flying sedans. It was stylized like a 1940s wartime poster, but with neon filters and glitch-art overlays.
They called him “The Competitive Man.” A relic of engineered optimism.
“Better for you… Better for everybody,” Jax muttered under his breath as a swarm of ad drones passed overhead, beaming personalized offers directly into his neuro-band.
But deep down, in the analog parts of his soul, Jax wondered:
Was it really better?
Or had the race become the cage?
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