Scenic reading by Marc-Uwe Kling
In Marc-Uwe Kling's QualityLand, algorithms provide people with the products of a mail order company without being asked, dating apps decide which partnership is advantageous and self-driving cars have always known their destination. But the fully automated consumer paradise is a thoroughly economized surveillance state, in which a Kafkaesque points system punishes the unsuccessful with downgrading, while society descends into madness under the pressure of profit maximization. Even the machines are affected: androids suffer from neurosis, drones from a fear of flying and vacuum cleaners are afflicted with hoarder syndrome ...
Highly comical criticism of capitalism at its best - albeit fictitious. Any similarities with actual events or well-known market leaders would be purely coincidental.
