[Rejected: 2] Chinas Next Social Credit System Sounds Like Science Fiction, But It Could Already Be in Motion
Editor's Note: Ideas are too random, hard to follow.
The report stated, “The experts reached the consensus that the driving force for the long-term development of the world economy is ultimately innovation. They added that when looking back in history, it’s clear that the vitality and creativity released by the reform of institutional mechanisms, and the new industries and products created by technological advancement, are the fundamentals needed for the world economy to emerge and recover from major crises.”
VICE News, a popular channel on YouTube giving insights into China's next plans for advancement, investigated the rise of facial recognition tech as well as how China is further increasing its monitoring of each and every action that its citizens make in late December 2019. When talking with Tech employees in China, the idea to attach points and scores to a person, from daily actions resulting in a plus or minus, could be where China drives its economy.
If we think of Black Mirror, a popular British Science Fiction Series on Netflix, there is a perfect example of how this would work in Series 3 Episode 1 Nosedive.
In this world where people can rate each other, from one to five stars for every interaction they have, it would impact your social standing. Making it possible or impossible to live in certain areas, get credit from banks, or even what job you can apply for. If we think about rating Uber drivers, Food Delivery Services and other daily norms for many of us, just multiply the scale to every interaction we have in the outside world.
Many of us already use mobile technology, giving ratings and embracing rating systems, it has already been well adopted in society. Embracing newer and more powerful technology can connect us even further, making instant ratings and scoring systems very real and possible.
China introduced its plans to rank citizens based on credit scores back in 2014, aiming to build a harmonious society innovating social governance and to forge a desire for citizens to work hard and help stimulate the country’s economy.
The event held this month was organized by the Yunhe Technology Group, the Yunhe New Social Credit System Joint Research Institute, the China Blockchain Enterprise Social Responsibility Research Institute, and the Beijing Huaxia Industrial Network Intelligent Technology Research Institute.
Living in a world where we are all assigned a score determining life's available options, including “whether you can borrow money” or “get your children into the best schools”, and that actions such as “defaulting on a loan” or “criticizing the ruling party” would lead to a lower score, is certainly not a future that seems freeing. In fact, maybe just the opposite.