The first digital dictatorship

[GSOgymrat]

This is seriously like an episode of Black Mirror. The government will monitor and evaluate everything you do, how you spend your time, where you go, who you associate with, what you look at online and add or deduct points for good or bad behavior, assigning rewards or punishments. The behavior of your associates will also affect your score. I encourage you to read the article because it has good graphics.

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-18/china-social-credit-a-model-citizen-in-a-digital-dictatorship/10200278?pfmredir=sm

China is building a digital dictatorship to exert control over its 1.4 billion citizens. For some, “social credit” will bring privileges â€" for others, punishment. What may sound like a dystopian vision of the future is already happening in China. And it’s making and breaking lives.

The Communist Party calls it “social credit” and says it will be fully operational by 2020. Within years, an official Party outline claims, it will “allow the trustworthy to roam freely under heaven while making it hard for the discredited to take a single step”.

Social credit is like a personal scorecard for each of China’s 1.4 billion citizens. In one pilot program already in place, each citizen has been assigned a score out of 800. In other programs it’s 900. Those, like Dandan, with top “citizen scores” get VIP treatment at hotels and airports, cheap loans and a fast track to the best universities and jobs. Those at the bottom can be locked out of society and banned from travel, or barred from getting credit or government jobs.

The system will be enforced by the latest in high-tech surveillance systems as China pushes to become the world leader in artificial intelligence. Surveillance cameras will be equipped with facial recognition, body scanning and geo-tracking to cast a constant gaze over every citizen. Smartphone apps will also be used to collect data and monitor online behaviour on a day-to-day basis. Then, big data from more traditional sources like government records, including educational and medical, state security assessments and financial records, will be fed into individual scores. Trial social credit systems are now in various stages of development in at least a dozen cities across China. ...

[Hydra009]

This is seriously like an episode of Black Mirror.

The Orville did one like that, too.



But yeah, this system is horrific.  Unparalleled domestic spying, legalized discrimination, collective blame, and the cherry on top - rife with potential abuse issues and numerous ways to game the system.  Prepare to see a sharp divide in society between the privileged upvoted and downtrodden downvoted.

[Draconic Aiur]

"And China once again is divided"- history of the world I guess

[Hydra009]

Two sentences that explain a lot the reasons why China is the way it is:

For many in China, privacy doesn’t have the same premium as it does in the West.

The Chinese place a higher value on community good versus individual rights, so most feel that, if social credit will bring a safer, more secure, more stable society, then bring it on.

A marked emphasis on "stability" (read: political stability) and communal good at the expense of individual rights and freedoms (like privacy)

[Jason78]

Where's the ability for a person to be rehabilitated or change?   Isn't there a danger that this system could become self reinforcing? With the people with points continually accruing points from associating with other people with points, and  people without points restricted to losing points by associating with other people without points.

There's also a danger that this could create a "one size fits all" society where any deviation from an idealised norm is punished.   

[Baruch]

Where's the ability for a person to be rehabilitated or change?   Isn't there a danger that this system could become self reinforcing? With the people with points continually accruing points from associating with other people with points, and  people without points restricted to losing points by associating with other people without points.

There's also a danger that this could create a "one size fits all" society where any deviation from an idealised norm is punished.

Ever review your grades in school.  If you get straight As ... you are an A student.  Get one D ... and it ruins your average, you have to work very hard to end up labeled a B student.  This is the difference between median and average.  The median gives you a clearer picture of a basically A student who went on a bender one semester.

[Hydra009]

There's also a danger that this could create a "one size fits all" society where any deviation from an idealised norm is punished.

That's the explicit goal of this system according to its supporters.

[Baruch]

That's the explicit goal of this system according to its supporters.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORkS2IY1eNo

A diabolical plot going back centuries!

[GSOgymrat]

That's the explicit goal of this system according to its supporters.

I appreciated the article discussed how some Chinese people are happy to exchange privacy and liberty for conformity and security.

[Munch]

I appreciated the article discussed how some Chinese people are happy to exchange privacy and liberty for conformity and security.

makes me think of my brother, who was all for freedoms, until he had kids and then become a conformist only interested in the world being shaped around protecting his kids from the evils of the internet. Pretty sure they won't appreciate that attitude when they become young adults themselves.

[Baruch]

I appreciated the article discussed how some Chinese people are happy to exchange privacy and liberty for conformity and security.

Such people exist in every society.  There are people who drink gasoline too.

[Cavebear]

makes me think of my brother, who was all for freedoms, until he had kids and then become a conformist only interested in the world being shaped around protecting his kids from the evils of the internet. Pretty sure they won't appreciate that attitude when they become young adults themselves.

When you live in a dictatorship, staying alive and protecting your family is really important...

[Baruch]

When you live in a dictatorship, staying alive and protecting your family is really important...

D = dictatorship of the proletariat
R = dictatorship of the rich

[Cavebear]

D = dictatorship of the proletariat
R = dictatorship of the rich

Cute!  But most of us are between the poles.

[Baruch]

Cute!  But most of us are between the poles.

Only if you are part Polish.  And we know what the two geographic poles, Germany and Russia, do with that situation!

Americans are extremists ... this won't end well.