I'm not sure about this. It's going to be so disastrous, reminiscent of Cultural Revolution in some spiritual form, to try to force human nature into quantifiable scoring system that relies on subjective truth that is determined by a central government.<p>Then again this is China, people have no way of speaking out against their government without risking their lives, and the government has no obligation other than maintaining their power over the population.<p>I almost feel as if Xi is losing his grip on the population by introducing drastic internal policies like this that only names goals that appear to benefit the greater good but almost certainly driving his own agenda, even if it earns the ire of his surrounding peers.<p>A foreign policy analysis of Xi's external facing policies are almost certainly always to further his internal grip which explains the bizarre & seemingly counter-productive positions he took against North Korea and South China Sea, that further drove neighbouring countries to America's arms....but with strange turn of events it seems that they will be undone from Trump's camp, much to the delight of Putin & Xi.<p>Time will tell, but it's doubtful we will have anything but a government mouthpiece statician announcing the success of such policies.<p>It's tough to know the real truth in societies where it is actively suppressed and manipulated by a single central entity. It's also difficult to say how long such systems will last without continuously taking on more risky and expensive internal policies that lags behind changing technology that disseminates information.<p>but what's that saying? The person wielding the biggest stick in the room is the source of truth implying force is always the lowest common denominator in human societies. Afterall, America wouldn't be where it is today without its 14 nuclear powered floating airports with the most advanced weapon technologies that casts a shadow on any port it chooses to refuel in.
China has had similar systems for decades. The dang’an record books on employee behavior were kept by big state employers. But that system didn't hold up well as more private employers appeared. Now it's being brought up to date.<p>The US has something like this for travel, where the lowest tier is being on the "do not fly" list, and having a Global Entry card, which requires "extreme vetting", moves you to a higher tier where you can bypass some security lines.
For people who haven't seen it, I highly recommend the black mirror episode "Nosedive" for an exploration of what this could do to a society even in the absence of government control.
This could show or open up some possible alternatives to the current monetary system. You have to see money as providing the same function today in our society. Not your credit score and whatnot. Those are derived from it.<p>Money is what forces humans today into a quantifiable scoring system. On one side is doom but it is worth thinking about that the other side could provide. "Today you have been credited 400 points for helping 100 elderly over the street, driving 50 disabled people to the doctor and returning 20 lbs of unused food". Then you don't have a monetary system pricing your actions, but you have central control over what gets priced in what way. Sounds familiar, I know. But just because none of us can imagine anything but money to fulfill this allocation function, does not mean that other thinkers are hard at work. Surely this is far away from western individualism, but not every country has bought into that. China is surely investigating it's options long term to opt out of various constraints imposed upon by global power systems, one of which is the global banking and monetary system.
Coverage of China's Credit and Scoring System is described by those covering it, like CNN (<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/27/opinions/china-social-credit-score-creemers/" rel="nofollow">http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/27/opinions/china-social-credit-s...</a>), as:<p>"In that sense, perhaps the most shocking element of the story is not the Chinese government’s agenda, but how similar it is to the path technology is taking elsewhere."<p>This is because, for example, surveillance of social media posts have been an input to credit scores in countries like the United States for some time. (<a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/how-companies-turn-your-facebook-activity-credit-score/" rel="nofollow">https://www.thenation.com/article/how-companies-turn-your-fa...</a>)<p>In the United States, further, social media post and social relationship information is used across America to calculate real time police "threat scores", predictive crime measurements that are applied to prioritize law enforcement and surveillance efforts. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/the-new-way-police-are-surveilling-you-calculating-your-threat-score/2016/01/10/e42bccac-8e15-11e5-baf4-bdf37355da0c_story.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/the-new-w...</a><p>China unfortunately is not unique in this landscape of social gamification - the kind espoused by the Bush and Obama Administrations - perhaps most perfectly represented by the legal justifications and arguments by Washington insiders in the intellectual orbit of Cass Sunstein.
When Extra Credits "Propaganda Games" video came out about a year ago[1], I was relived when I read that "Sesame Credit" was a complete fabrication, and even questioned EC for posting such a video without source checking.<p>Apparently is wasn't <i>completely</i> fabricated after all.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHcTKWiZ8sI" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHcTKWiZ8sI</a>
The Chinese leaders love talking about "harmony" as a social goal. In that spirit, these could be called "Harmony Points", or simply HP.<p><i>You gained 17 HP yesterday. You've just leveled up! Report to your neighborhood party representative for your complimentary face massage kit. [Share on Weibo] [Share on WeChat]</i>
Like clockwork for every story just like this...<p><i>China has had similar systems for decades</i>
....
<i>The US has something like this for travel</i><p>and<p><i>How different is this from our current credit system through FICO scores?</i><p>Sorry, that technique doesn't work. Come up with something new.
This strikes me as thoroughly oppressive.<p>Its a bit like the American credit system in that it can kick people in the balls...except its more arbitrary, outside of the persons control and very vulnerable to abuse.
This is very dangerous. Things like this make me glad that I live in a democracy, although people in power can some times get away by doing stuff, they ultimately have to agree to the popular demands (this is also why certain dictators are overthrown by popular demand by a very big uprising, but it then disrupts the working of the country for a long time, works quicker in democracies since leaders have to listen to get elected next time)
Doesn't sound bad, but when one of the factors used to calculate your credit rating is your degree political alignment, it is bad.<p>That combined with mass surveillance, censorship, and the fact that the People's Liberation Army serves the communist party and not the Chinese people gives them total control over the population.
Don't we already have this? A prospective employer can look up everything about you, and form a composite score on their own if they want to. China is late to the game.
Now that Facebook is coming to China, maybe they will integrate it in their chinese version. Then other countries soon also could be granted to receive such a feature.