101–110 of 165 posts
That sounds basically like a Credit Rating System, similar systems exists in probably every first world country. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_rating
I'm glad China does this so we can see real world examples of why we don't fuck with freedom. This will implode eventually just like our money driven political system bullshit in America.
If one were to apply the same sort of simplistic argument in the China case, they have as much freedom as anyone else has.
IMO we would also be fools if we don't think there is a scoring system to help sort the millions of Americans with profiles in the American intelligence apparatus.
This is our brave new world.
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I don't know a single person that doesn't have a very low, highly critical opinion of the US Government already. That includes essentially universal skepticism of Congress. So yes, I think Americans criticize their government almost as a professional sport. Non-stop 24/7, everywhere. Even for things the government isn't responsible for. I'd argue the only thing Americans are guilty of is too much complaining and crit…
You must not know a lot of people ;) That was a mostly joking jab ... but seriously, have you looked at a demographics map of the US? In between just about every blue city/urban center, there are broad swaths of rural red. Many of these folks are of the opinion that what the government does is right, and we shouldn't question cause they know best. Which is ironic given their love of "small government" ... but when th…
This is bad. But before judging China, people need to ask themselves if the hold their own government to the same standard of criticism. As an American, I feel if the US government had similar plans and someone had leaked them on Wikileaks, there would be more conversation about the leaker's girlfriend than outrage about the plans themselves.
Countries such as the US and Australia already implement much of what the article describes: credit rating, criminal record, financial assets, standarized test scores, educational and employment records, residential history, searchable online presence, with the greatest weighting given to financial assets of course because how much money someone has trumps all. The main differences with the announced Chinese plan are…
This is madness. I thought I was reading a fake article. > the system is 'very ambitious in both depth and scope, including scrutinizing individual behavior and what books people read. It's Amazon's consumer tracking with an Orwellian political twist.' What a coincidence. Recently I had to decide whether to buy books on politics for kindle. I didn't like the fact that it tracks everything I buy, what sentences I high…
Is it wrong that the first thought in my mind is how to influence their ratings at scale? "Diaper stuffing" while humourus is probably not far off the initial reputation optimization schemes that have probably already commenced. I'd say there's a good chance you'll be able to buy your way to a top score while the poor become the geocities of citizens.
> "Diaper stuffing" while humourus is probably not far off the initial reputation optimization schemes that have probably already commenced.
The government would keep the algorithm a secret, so there would be a SEO for human beings: the CRO citizen ranking optimization. CRO would tell you what books to buy, the top 10 items to boost your rating, what people you should befriend...
What are the odds that something like this is already in place on global scale by some American spooks? To "fight the war on terrorism" or something. Surely it's not that difficult to do considering internet megacorps already do behaviour analysis and payment processors already keep track of what goes where, including credit scoring.
"Although the program was formally suspended, its data mining software was later adopted by other government agencies, with only superficial changes being made. According to a 2012 New York Times article, the legacy of Total Information Awareness is "quietly thriving" at the National Security Agency (NSA).[12]"
"As a "virtual, centralized, grand database”,[18] the scope of surveillance includes, among others, credit card purchases, magazine subscriptions, web browsing histories, academic grades, bank deposits, passport applications, driver's licenses, toll records, judicial records, divorce records, etc.[10]"
"Health information collected by TIA include drug prescriptions,[10] medical records,[19] and individual DNA.[20]"
Soviet Union tried to create a new citizen. You won't easily find creature more miserable than their result. Alcohol consumption spiked and life expectancy actually plummeted.
Having my tea, frowning.
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Indeed, private companies in the United States already do this. The question is what will the data be used for?
This might show my European perspective, but I'd rather have my government collect such data than some unaccountable private entity. Even better if no one does it of course.
There was a good talk back in 2012 from ex NSA that laid out some of the details for how the US surveillance keeps track of online behavior too[1]. I think (as awful as it is) we can expect most governments major governments to do this if it's within their technical capacity. To get out from under this, I think we'll need 100% encryption of everything, open source devices, and ways for companies to make money without…
There is a concerted effort now, through government compulsion and money, to funnel venture capitol towards start-ups with cyber security (offensive and defensive) and away from those offering encryption and privacy services and communications solutions.
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Valid point lets go with instead Alpha (“the upper class”) Beta (“the second upper class”) Gamma (“the middle class”) Delta (“the second lower class”) Epsilon (“the lower class”) Double-Plus (“the superior subdivision among Alphas”) Plus (“the superior subdivision among Alphas, Betas, Gammas or Deltas, but inferior to Double-Plus”) Minus (“the inferior subdivision among Alphas, Betas, Gammas or Deltas”) savage (“a pe…
Gamma is not "the middle class", it's "blue collar". You don't really need deltas and epsilons in the long run. Unless they are very cheap to have, robots are going to replace them.