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China rates its own citizens – including online behaviour

volkskrant.nl

121–130 of 165 posts

Re: China rates its own citizens – including online behaviour

#121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this a joke?

Probably not. The US superpower status has been hollowing out and China has begun to be able to project power in very impressive ways. The US sees China as its major threat right now. What the US government would like to do is 'contain' China by keeping it a regional force - so that it can't complete as a global power. In anticipation of future conflict there has already been a large amount of anti-China sentiment cr…

The China boogieman is already disappearing. They will have their hands full with domestic problems as their population demands a more Western lifestyle. As long as the current allies remain together The West is nigh untouchable, sorry.

Re: China rates its own citizens – including online behaviour

#122
post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

In the really long run, why would you need anything other than Alphas?

Once singularity happens, those are obsolete too.

Re: China rates its own citizens – including online behaviour

#123
post #39

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…

> 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 highlight, the notes I keep... I bet my libertarian books would make my score very low in future China. This is why I keep "pirating" and hoarding books. I know it's bad for the common good and bad for the authors but I feel paranoid about corporations and national security…

> It was completely unrealistic when 1984 was written, of course, but in 2013 (when I read it), this hit a little bit too close to home.

Ironically enough, Amazon has already once erased 1984 from users' Kindle devices: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18ama...

Re: China rates its own citizens – including online behaviour

#124
post #113

My gut reaction ( being an anglo, American, redneck, privileged, don't tread on me kind of person ) is that this is horrible. But thinking deeper on it I wonder if this is what Chinese Democracy looks like. The goal being maximal harmony, rather than maximal personal freedom. The method being a constant polling of all participants by all participants rather than occasional polling of those who can be bothered to vote…

It looks alien to you because you haven't come to terms with the fundamental shift in technology (all the data that is created, collected and analyzed) and politics in western society (using said data in the name of security).

The current trend is to gather all data and to use it in any way possible, regardless if you're in China or if you have a Confederate flag on your truck.

Re: China rates its own citizens – including online behaviour

#125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now you know (of) a single person. Our public servants are largely fine people. We get stuff that's weird because of people being dancing monkeys for campaign finance. This is actually, in my opinion, overt, specific and designed entertainment product. It's very rarely an attachment to principle or thought out - one reason Reagan did so well is that he pretty much believed a lot of what he said ( not all - you have t…

Our public servants are not fine people. They kill unarmed civilians in their custody, they kill Americans without cause nor due process, they torture innocents, admit they torture innocents, and then do nothing. Our public officials state on record that financial institutions are too big to jail then proceed to use the law to terrify and ruin the lives of those who dare defy their agenda.

Our public servants are not good or evil. They are merely people responding to the incentives that they are faced with.

This means that they are incentivised to behave by fear of losing their jobs, by financial contributions and kickbacks, by legacy, by moral sentiment, by haste and convenience, by duty. There are very few to no public servants who feel that what they are doing is wrong - and you might agree with some of their actions even when it blurs lines (assassinating Osama Bin Laden without due process of law).

What's happening now is that America's post WWII order is fracturing and weakening. There are new players on the stage. The theater of global politics and finance is shifting from Europe to the Asian Pacific. The borders fixed to prevent another great European war had also been fixed to provide energy security from the Middle East - but this freezing has prevented those people living there from having a great or fully modern society of their own. The technology backing nuclear weapons has exceeded the defense capabilities of all nations at a time non-proliferation treaties expired (the Bush administration did not renew them). Russia and China are rushing to create a Eurasia that can compete with Europe and Europe is trying to create a United States of Europe to ween away from NATO and to achieve a regional hegemony that provides it security and an opportunity to be a global player. Frought with both politicization, financial warfare, general gamifiedness, and brittleness global finance has brought financial redistribution, bubbles and busts to both hemispheres.

In response the US is building oil pipelines across the Americas, coup'ing Venezuela to open up its oil to US investment, settling new bases and rigs into the now contested (for geostrategic military reasons) the artic north.

The internet through all of this was supposed to allow a marketplace of ideas to exist across the world - but instead has been used by nations to propagandize, spy and sabotage one another.

In this turbulant time of America losing its grips, huge changes and bets will be made and American leadership will kill, torture, surveil and censor to ensure its own survival. That is to say we can't think of this as good versus evil but dog eat dog. The world has never been about good and evil, though men are compelled by it before they stand in trenches and need to survive.

The sad part is that during a time on Earth where there is more of everything for more of everyone that changes and fluxuations and opportunity mean the prospect of violence.

Re: China rates its own citizens – including online behaviour

#126
post #92

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.

* I'd say there's a good chance you'll be able to buy your way to a top score*

This is a country that imposes the death penalty for corruption. Social hacking isn't something that is going to happen there.

Re: China rates its own citizens – including online behaviour

#127

That sounds basically like a Credit Rating System, similar systems exists in probably every first world country. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_rating

But wouldn't that be the natural evolution of a credit rating?

A CR is a single metric to evaluate trustworthiness. I can easily imagine a future where credit rating takes into account all of your quantifiable life qualities.

Re: China rates its own citizens – including online behaviour

#129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably not. The US superpower status has been hollowing out and China has begun to be able to project power in very impressive ways. The US sees China as its major threat right now. What the US government would like to do is 'contain' China by keeping it a regional force - so that it can't complete as a global power. In anticipation of future conflict there has already been a large amount of anti-China sentiment cr…

The China boogieman is already disappearing. They will have their hands full with domestic problems as their population demands a more Western lifestyle. As long as the current allies remain together The West is nigh untouchable, sorry.

It is interesting you think the China boogieman is disappearing. Luckily for us the relatively near future will inform us who is right so we don't need to hash out the principles.

It's also interesting to see that what I'm doing in the prior comment is laying out the case made by Washington and the defense contractors and of global strategy reports of allies - i.e. I'm merely mirroring official standings and policies in my comment. Washington is wrong often, let's see if they are wrong again.

Re: China rates its own citizens – including online behaviour

#130
post #82

Wow... how many more sick and oppressive policies does the Chinese government have to churn out (and so brazenly too) before the people of China say something? Where's the social unrest.. where's their sense of responsibility towards their future generations to nip a thing like this in the bud before it becomes the norm... what, nothing??

You might ask the same thing about the spying programs in our own back yard.
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