Fifteen Million Merits presents a dystopia where most people ride stationary bicycles to generate its electricity. Although not exactly enslaved, they are motivated to keep riding by the merits they earn for their mileage -- which can be used to buy only necessities and baubles -- and the prospect of being demoted to custodial work if they stop. Most are alienated from their work, distracted only by meaningless entertainment that ranges from the cruel to the pornographic. Into this allegory of capitalism enter Bing and Abby, who test whether beauty and love provide enough reality and meaning to escape. In this conversation, we use Aristotle, Hegel, and Marx -- but especially Hegel -- to understand their situation.