From Blade Runner to a connected world: Could electricity become the currency of visibility?

By Sophie Toth | QuintworX Thoughts & Predictions

Published 11 October 2026

Perspective disclaimer: This article presents QuintworX thoughts, opinions and predictions, not verified forecasts. Future scenarios are speculative; timing and outcomes are uncertain. It is not financial, investment or legal advice, and does not promise commercial results. References to Blade Runner are cultural commentary and do not imply affiliation or endorsement.

From science fiction to connected environments

When I watch Blade Runner, with its futuristic cities, holographic advertisements and digital guidance integrated into almost every environment, I increasingly wonder how far away that vision really is.

What once looked like science fiction is gradually becoming part of our commercial and everyday reality.

Digital screens are expanding across cities, retail environments and public spaces. Advertising is becoming more contextual, interactive and connected to our surroundings.

And I believe this transformation will extend far beyond advertising.

My prediction is that within the next few years, we may begin to experience television very differently from how we do today.

Our homes may become increasingly digitalised, with connected surfaces, intelligent devices and interactive environments changing how we consume information, entertainment and commercial content.

The television as we know it may become just one component of a much larger connected living environment.

But this vision raises another, perhaps more fundamental, question.

What happens when connectivity becomes essential to visibility, participation and everyday life?

The dependency beneath every digital experience

Behind every digital experience sits something we rarely discuss when talking about media transformation.

Electricity.

Without electrical power, our connected infrastructure stops functioning. Our devices, digital identities, communication systems and commercial environments become inaccessible.

And that leads me to a prediction that goes beyond advertising.

Could electricity become one of the most valuable currencies of the connected world?

Not necessarily a currency in the traditional financial sense, but a fundamental resource that determines who can participate, communicate, create and remain visible in an increasingly digital society.

We already recognise data as a valuable commercial asset. We discuss attention, identity, connectivity and digital ownership.

But all of them depend on access to reliable power.

Visibility, opportunity and access

If digital participation becomes increasingly essential to economic and social life, unequal access to affordable electricity could create another form of inequality.

Those with reliable power, infrastructure and connectivity may enjoy greater access to opportunities, information and commercial visibility.

Those without them risk becoming less visible within the digital environments through which society increasingly operates.

They would not disappear from the physical world, but they could become increasingly excluded from the digital one.

In a world where visibility creates opportunity, access to power may increasingly determine access to visibility.

Architecture must consider its fundamentals

This is why I believe conversations about the future of media infrastructure must go beyond technology integration and monetisation.

We also need to consider resilience, accessibility, sustainability and the dependencies we are creating.

The more connected our world becomes, the more important its underlying fundamentals become.

And perhaps the biggest question isn’t simply how connected our future will be.

It’s who will have the power to remain connected.

Explore how we approach independent Media Supply Architecture or start a conversation with QuintworX.

QuintworX Thoughts & Predictions: a perspective for discussion, not a forecast or guarantee.