The Dystopian Future is Now?
First and foremost, even if you don’t plan to click over to read the article itself, click over just to see one of the coolest uses of special effects on a webpage. I know. I’m totally distracted by shiny tricks. And this story is about the shiniest trick of all.
So what if you were given a score — a number like a credit score — but instead of it measuring how responsible you are in paying off purchases, it measured your behaviour. So you get points for the times you hold open the door for someone and you lose points for the times you cut off someone in traffic. And the world works exactly as we always claim we want the world to work: the good get rewarded and the bad get punished.
Except, unlike a credit score, which is black-and-white (you’re either on-time with payments or you’re not), behaviour is in the eye of the beholder. Who decides that holding open the door is a mark of good manners rather than a way of demonstrating control? Who decides what is polite and what is rude and what is the right thing to do and what is clearly in the wrong?
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.”
The system is already in place and it’s mandatory, though it won’t be fully operational for a few more years. Your score updates in real-time, so there is clear cause and effect — you can trace what you just did to the drop or rise in your social credit score. Live a decent life and you’re rewarded. Be a bad citizen and you’re punished. Again, exactly as we hope life will work. We want good things to happen to good people and bad things to happen to bad people. Don’t we?
Except: “Who your friends and family are will affect your score. If your best friend or your dad says something negative about the government, you’ll lose points too. Who you date and ultimately partner with will also affect social credit.”
Of course, as the article points out, I’m seeing this system through American eyes. And that does carry weight because I have a feeling we may not understand this system in the same way an insider understands the system:
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.
I already give up my privacy when I participate in social media or walk around outside where there are cameras, so I can’t say that we have the privacy we crave here.
I don’t know how this will unfold when it’s fully implemented. If other countries will follow suit.
What do you think?
6 comments
I don’t want what limited freedom I already have compromised by some sort of monitoring system, thank you very much. We all do things that are mildly annoying to other people, but in exchange, we also put up with annoying things from other people. I don’t like the idea that we all have to conform to a specific standard of behavior in order to succeed – that seems very limiting and ableist. I mean…what if you have some sort of disorder that doesn’t allow you to hold a door for someone? And what if you cut someone off in order to avoid running over a small animal in the road?
But then…I’m not a conformist. While I’m generally polite, that’s not always enough to build social capital, if you know what I mean. Engaging in small talk is thought to be polite – I don’t do that. Would I be penalized? I hate the whole idea enough that I didn’t even want to see the special effects…
Wow. This is the absolute wrong time in our country’s history to think about putting this kind of trust and power in the hands of those on top. Can you imagine what kind of info they’d want to gather from women? Terrifying.
Damn, this is scary. The idea that our ability to move and act being compromised based on a system that is ripe for abuse. I can only begin to imagine how a certain few will earn privileges solely on their birthright and connections while others will unfairly suffer. Yes, I’m viewing all of this through a particular lens, but this still screams Big Brother and I’ve yet to see a case where that ends well.
It makes me think of the TV show Person of Interest. Basically if your score is poor, you’re a prisoner of the country and likely will have a very hard time moving up in the ranks.
I admit I’m freaked out.
This is so scary to me as an American. I think the part that bothers me the most is that your friends and family can influence your score. I understand their reasoning, but I feel like it would just drive families apart. Sometimes people need help from others with higher “scores.” Additionally can you view your own score and see the contributing factors to drive it up or down? I’m thinking like a credit report where you can see the card where you may have made a late payment. I don’t really understand the Chinese system. I was in China shortly after the tsunami in Japan in 2011. It was amazing to see how different the disaster was reported on the news there and what people believed. The government led them to believe it was a conspiracy to harm China and not a true natural disaster. It was very sad and strange.