Social Credit System. Think It's Only a Chinese Problem? Think again.
In the past few years I have been seeing the Chinese Social Credit System being brought up in the news over and over again.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2019/01/21/chinese-social-credit-score-utopian-big-data-bliss-or-black-mirror-on-steroids/#23c93cb448b8
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/china-social-credit-system-explained
https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/1/18246297/china-transportation-people-banned-poor-social-credit-planes-trains-2018
They compare it to black mirror and big brother pointing out how it's an intrusion to your privacy and your life like in some dystopian future sci-fi movie.
I agree that it's creepy. The government watching you using millions of surveillance cameras and rating you for your behavior and having that report card available for everyone to see. It's like you have to watch your behavior 24/7. No privacy at all.
This can't possibly happen in the good old USA right? think again. We already have financial credit score system ran by private corporations (FICO itself is a private company). What makes you think that corporations can't just implement these social credit score systems themselves for profit?
The reason I bring this up is because I found out that this is already happening. I was randomly searching my name on Google today and found out that there is a website that gives way too much information about you (yearly income, net worth, family members, neighbors, court records, etc) plus a reputation score.
You can take control of your profile and dispute your reputation score by giving them more information about you (What a scam right?).
If you live in the US, put in your name and try it out. You might be surprised at amount of information leaked to this site.
https://www.mylife.com/
Now, this might not be bad as Chinese Social Credit system but it is pretty bad. Think about potential employer searching your name and finding this site. The composition of reputation score is BS since it includes things such as your connections (You can't help who you are related to) and random reviews(by who?) or your name showing up on malicious websites. This thing is flawed.
I can see this getting worse as time goes on. For the ending of this post, here is an interesting quote I have from a mystery person on the internet. Is the social credit system the next form of human control?
There are terms in MECHANICAL ENGINEERING:
LAG and LASH, for example!
You likely know LAG already. LASH can be defined as:
the maximum distance through which one part of something can be moved without moving a connected >part
The next system eliminates the LAG and LASH inherent with FIAT.
Think of it this way. You have two domestics in your employ.
Domestic A is willing to perform the household tasks, and is generally competent in doing so. However, one must provide specific instructions as to every action desired. For example, you return home and Domestic A greets you at the door. You have to tell it to take your coat and direct it to prepare dinner. Regardless of the fact that your routine seldom varies, the domestic requires direction! One deals with varying degrees of PASSIVE RESISTANCE. Now apply this RESISTANCE across vast numbers and CALCULATE the WASTE!
Domestic B greets you at the door and wordlessly takes your coat, and leads you to a sumptuous banquet...carefully prepared and flawless in execution and plating. You finish the meal and find the fire prepared and your favorite drink ready. Later, the bedsheets are carefully turned down and your nightwear laid out carefully. All without the need to issue commands.
The first system has excessive LAG and LASH. System two provides FLOW and CONTINUITY with no >wasted effort. The holy grail of engineering...ABOVE UNITY!
FIAT has done its job. The NEXT system implements a level of control with an inescapable feedback mechanism which encourages seamless and utter COMPLIANCE!