The odds are 100 percent that the further infiltration of prediction markets into the public square and political decisions is going to make our lives worse. Recently announced partnerships—Polymarket with Substack and X , and Kalshi with CNN and the Associated Press —have created the conditions to incubate the worst existing trends in society: reality mediated by markets, screens, and gamification; the loneliness of late capitalism unaddressed beyond the soothing repetition of virtual lever-