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EUNJI KIM
Digital devices are now widely available, leading to the establishment of a digital world where people can get dopamine. Since dopamine is a hormone, which plays a role in making people feel good, a certain amount needs to be secreted. However, the digital world is easier to get fresh joy with less effort than the real world, their brains expect rewards and secrete more dopamine when people are in that world. This can lead to dopamine addiction (According to the mobile big data analysis platform ‘Mobile Index,’ the average YouTube viewing time per person in Korea is about approximately 32.9 hours per month.), and if it becomes more severe, it can result in a paradoxical state where the hormonal balance collapses, and individuals solely chase pleasure, unable to experience further enjoyment. Moreover, people will become accustomed to passive satisfaction and tend to avoid active pleasures that require more effort, leading to a weakening of social connections.
Therefore, from a speculative perspective, there is an envisioned a scenario in 2050, in which the current situation intensifies, and dopamine becomes a form of currency. In this scenario, dopamine is both money and power. The currency derived from dopamine operates on similar principles as NFTs and other cryptocurrencies. All expenses can calculate in dopamine, for example, an iced americano costs 3 dopamine, a MacBook costs 4500 dopamine, and a BMW costs 100K dopamine. To get dopamine, one must feel satisfaction. The more intense the satisfaction, the stronger the dopamine, which leads to a lot of money. The dopamine measurement technique follows a digital signal technique based on nanostructures developed by the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science. The most efficient way to get dopamine is through digital devices because it requires less effort compared to regular dopamine. However, overexposure disrupts the balance, and the same level of dopamine cannot be achieved with the same stimulus as before. To continue generating dopamine, one must improve the quality. As a result, dopamine extraction factories have emerged, like Bitcoin mining facilities. In these factories, primarily lower-class individuals wear specialized dopamine extraction devices on their heads and continuously generate dopamine through digital devices. The name of dopamine extraction device is Dopato, derived from a combination of “Dopamine” and “Crypto.” The dopamine extracted in this way is acquired by the higher-class individuals.
2023