Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

We already live in social credit, we just don't call it that

thenexus.media

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

501–510 of 727 posts

Re: We already live in social credit, we just don't call it that

#501

Post by eth0up »

FollowingTheDao wrote: post #483
specproc wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, this is it. I've lived under governments of a variety of different stripes in some very different parts of the world, I've lived in war zones. Day to day life has been more or less the same across all of them. You go shopping, go to work, see friends, have a few beers or maybe a smoke, eat out, go to weddings, birthdays and funerals, play sports. People run businesses, post memes. The way non-OECD, "non-democra…

The only difference in the United States is that you have a better chance of being the head authoritarian, and by that I mean a business owner. We have had a pretend democracy in the US for the last 60 years.

"pretend democracy"

I rarely offer an opinion here, expecting in advance it will gray into oblivion, however politely or sincerely it's presented. I see it happen to others often enough to remember.

In most cases I see the word democracy used, I have the exact thought, "pretend democracy". I don't deliberately try to be a morose cynic. I've just become incapable of thinking the very word without the subjunction "pretend".

The corporatism burgeoning here makes this seem undeniable to me. Am I that delusional? Is it really not that bad? Do the so called people really have a level of influence over their society befitting of the word? I don't see it. I just see words.

Re: We already live in social credit, we just don't call it that

#502

Post by 0xffff2 »

causal wrote: post #496
rlt wrote: post #488

“The only difference between your phone and China's social credit system is that China tells you what they're doing.” Weird take. There’s a massive difference between a centralized government-run system and a decentralized system run by individual companies. Credit scores are closest but limited to financial behaviors

Credit scores are used for a lot more than finances. You could argue everything they're used for is tied to money some way, but since everything is being sold to us as a service that doesn't leave much out. They are also very much not decentralized.

> Credit scores are used for a lot more than finances.

Such as? I'm wracking my brain, but I can't think of a single non-financial situation where someone has asked to pull my credit.

Re: We already live in social credit, we just don't call it that

#503

Post by causal »

0xffff2 wrote: post #502
causal wrote: post #496

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Credit scores are used for a lot more than finances. You could argue everything they're used for is tied to money some way, but since everything is being sold to us as a service that doesn't leave much out. They are also very much not decentralized.

> Credit scores are used for a lot more than finances. Such as? I'm wracking my brain, but I can't think of a single non-financial situation where someone has asked to pull my credit.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_credit_scoring_sy...

Re: We already live in social credit, we just don't call it that

#504

Post by card_zero »

lovich wrote: post #322
card_zero wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The clear delineation is the police and prisons, and courts. If the government is a corporation that happens to control the police, despite having that power it still isn't supposed to have everything all sewn up, because laws and courts and institutional resistance prevent it from doing anything it likes. This system is theoretical and supported mostly by wishing, but used to work for quite a long time. Meanwhile th…

> Meanwhile the actual corporations don't even have proper police forces and would struggle to get you put in actual prison for violating their rules. You should visit some megacorp campuses and then rethink this view. If you actually believe it then I dare you to do something against their rules while in one of their offices and be marveled at how many people pour out of the literal walls dressed in clothing colored…

They have to do it by proxy, though, ultimately. You can run away from their territory and be safe, until they think of an actual crime to accuse you of. In my naivety I don't believe megacorps carry out extrajudicial punishments, apart from banning people. They have to go through the law, and try to get people punished, not carry it out themselves.

Re: We already live in social credit, we just don't call it that

#506

Post by hlhdlhcohcv »

0xffff2 wrote: post #502
causal wrote: post #496

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Credit scores are used for a lot more than finances. You could argue everything they're used for is tied to money some way, but since everything is being sold to us as a service that doesn't leave much out. They are also very much not decentralized.

> Credit scores are used for a lot more than finances. Such as? I'm wracking my brain, but I can't think of a single non-financial situation where someone has asked to pull my credit.

housing? security clearance? preemployment checks?

Re: We already live in social credit, we just don't call it that

#507

Post by I-M-S »

eth0up wrote: post #501
FollowingTheDao wrote: post #483

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only difference in the United States is that you have a better chance of being the head authoritarian, and by that I mean a business owner. We have had a pretend democracy in the US for the last 60 years.

"pretend democracy" I rarely offer an opinion here, expecting in advance it will gray into oblivion, however politely or sincerely it's presented. I see it happen to others often enough to remember. In most cases I see the word democracy used, I have the exact thought, "pretend democracy". I don't deliberately try to be a morose cynic. I've just become incapable of thinking the very word without the subjunction "pret…

Democracy is the opium for the masses.

Re: We already live in social credit, we just don't call it that

#508

Post by socalgal2 »

socalgal2 wrote: post #30
carlosjobim wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no logical sense for Uber to ban or punish you for giving drivers low scores. The only reason would be if drivers gave you a low score.

Asking a random LLM to give reasons they might do this. Again, I'm not saying they do this. I'm saying my fear that they might isn't unfounded * To Prevent Unfair and Unfounded Ratings: Uber could argue that some riders misuse the rating system. They might give a driver a low rating for reasons outside of the driver's control, such as traffic, a bad mood, or a simple misunderstanding. This policy would be presented a…

I see the word "LLM" made people stupid. No one actually used engaged their brain once they saw the word "LLM"

Re: We already live in social credit, we just don't call it that

#509

Post by astura »

bluedevilzn wrote: post #226

I moved from Canada to California for a new job with a mid six figure salary. I had a very difficult time finding a place to rent as I had no credit score. Only places that were available without credit score was a room to share. That was not an option with a cat, wife and kids. Finally, I found a place that was willing to accept the entire year's rent up front. Moving such a large amount of money from Canada to US h…

>Once that was sorted out, I had to deal with yet more craziness to buy a vehicle. I decided to buy a CPO Mazda from the dealer in cash (using a cheque, of course). Once I signed all the papers, they ran a credit check on my newly created SSN. The system could not find my SSN. So, they denied letting me buy the car because they couldn't accept such a large amount from a person they could not verify. My passport and Canadian driver's license were not acceptable proof of ID for the dealer.

Go to another dealer, I have bought cars with a personal check without having a credit check at all. I think that's a really unusual policy.

Re: We already live in social credit, we just don't call it that

#510

Post by rafaelmn »

specproc wrote: post #335
Bukhmanizer wrote: post #92

The issue is that American media/discourse paints a very distorted view of what life under authoritarian rule is like. The truth is in many countries, unless you’re some kind of minority, politically active, or in legal trouble, day-to-day life is mostly similar to life in the west. But people don’t want to hear that, because we want to feel better than them. Like we wouldn’t tolerate that kind of life. Of course the…

Yeah, this is it. I've lived under governments of a variety of different stripes in some very different parts of the world, I've lived in war zones. Day to day life has been more or less the same across all of them. You go shopping, go to work, see friends, have a few beers or maybe a smoke, eat out, go to weddings, birthdays and funerals, play sports. People run businesses, post memes. The way non-OECD, "non-democra…

> Day to day life has been more or less the same across all of them.

This is a wild take, unless you mean that in thw sense of wake up, eat, work and sleep kind of way.

If I call the prime minister a criminal liar - worst that will happen is I get a defamation lawsuit. In authoritarian countries I go to a prison camp, and the neighbors are the one to report me. Even if I'm not political - if step on toes of people in party I can disappear and the rest will know not to ask questions.

Post reply on HN