When I wrote, 3 months ago, about a Canadian Government Application that 'rewards users for their healthy behavior' and I speculated about how 'point systems' could be used to create a corporate controlled nightmare reality - I did not expect to be finding almost exactly my prediction coming true in such a short time ahead.
Today I learned from Wired magazine that the Chinese government is already using a system that gives every citizen a 'Social Credit Score' - which effectively measures their conformity to state rules and opinions, rewarding those who conform with 'privileges' and literally punishing those who dissent! This really could not get more Orwellian, except perhaps if the 'citizen' were simply vaporised on the spot every time they thought about a better way of living than the government decreed to be acceptable.
"Those without personal power and the light to guide them towards love and balance will go along with whatever seems to brighten their darkness - like moths to a flame." - Me, Just now.
image source: wired and kevin hong
The Chinese system is alleged to be aimed to 'judge the trustworthiness of all Chinese residents'! As my regular readers will know, I have written at length already about why judgements ALWAYS introduce error and deny an aspect of reality. Judgements are an attempt to 'fill in the gaps' on a particular subject and which are at best a form of lazy, closed thinking and at worst a method of tyrannically forcing a false version of reality into our lives for whatever reason the judge chooses.
It will be obvious to most open minded observers, that for a system to measure the 'trustworthiness' and thus the 'value to society' of a human being means that the system will need to be configured to define what is and is not a 'good' behaviour (noting that 'good' and 'bad' are entirely subjective value judgements that are different for all of us). It is literally impossible to create a system that defines who is 'good' and 'bad' based only on simple metrics like the list of books the person reads, who their friends are and what they write about online.
Mis-representing reality in the name of control
It is provably impossible to create a system that truly helps humanity through such close scrutiny since somewhere along the line that system will be used to force changes on people and forcing changes on people against their will is itself a dysfunctional process that demands us to NOT trust those who would go ahead and do it to us.
In this case the Chinese government is literally saying that people are unable to travel on trains or leave the country if their social credit score is too low! They cite examples where people spend too many hours a day playing video games or who criticise the government!! What could be more tyrannical and insane that attempting to stop people travelling on a train because they comment about a government policy in a way that identifies flaws in the policy? This is really not far away from the stories of North Korea and Iraq where it has been alleged people are executed in the street for 'laughing at a portrait of the Dear Leader'.
Despite claims that such a software system will 'improve society' and 'enhance trust' (in a society notorious for it's fake products and tendency to lie a lot) - the reality is that any benefits will be hugely outweighed by the downsides since there is a HUGE loss of free will involved and total loss of privacy and personal empowerment. What exactly makes it right for a political group to dominate EVERY aspect of a person's life? What exactly gives them the authority to do that? Did God or some 'heavenly' presence decree that these ones are to dominate everyone else? If any such decree was ever made I can assure you that it was not a loving God that made it - rather it would be the opposite of love that made it - dressed up as a caring Father figure.
Caged Human Animals
A typically Asian philosophical approach is that there is always opportunity in our problems and this is true. The opportunities here are huge, just as the problems are. I feel that the humans involved are 'getting a taste of their own medicine' in some sense - karma is knocking. We cannot continue to completely deny the rights and needs of animals as if they are dirt and expect that the universe will let us continue indefinitely. China's evil fur farms, terrible record on animal cruelty and other related issues are all symptoms of a collective loss of heart, empathy and real feelings - long ago replaced by mental dogma and imagined 'rules of politeness' which deny what is really occurring on many levels.
A culture that disrespects life in so many ways (and China is FAR from being the only culture that does this) will eventually meet it's own karmic reflection and China is about to get slapped in the face with it yet again. Unfortunately, karma, just like the rights of living beings is also being heavily denied and so it's balancing and guiding presence falls on deaf ears - with people simply continuing on the same dysfunctional practices and making rationalisations as to why things couldn't possible be any different or better - when things definitely would be better if only those involved would wake up and take responsibility for their own actions in life.
Wishing you well,
Ura Soul
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This doesn't surprise me. It is just bringing the sort of social spying and control through fear that has been part of the Chinese political system for decades into social media. These 'social scores' already exist (particularly for minorities). I wonder if Tibetan nomads will be allowed to roam free and have as many horses as they want if they can get a good enough 'score'.
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I agree, in some ways it can be thought of as a 'good' thing since it brings the control right to the forefront of everyone's mind and from there it can be transformed - however, if it is blindly accepted as 'good' then it might be difficult to predict exactly what form of nightmare will be unleashed!
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Sometimes government can make things more worse than we can imagine.
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they often operate in the gaps that more sane people would never imagine into, yes...
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I believe 90% of the times government(s) make things worse by trying to regulate (help). The more personal the government (your local town) the better chance the regulation can help. The larger and more disconnected from the community (the federal government or UN) the greater chance their help does more harm than good.
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More concerning still is the prospect of an invisible system, still imposing itself on people though not known to at least most of them.
In the Western world the increasing prevalence of social media has a strong controlling effect regardless of a lack of an overt rating system. As more an more interaction is mediated by platforms such as facebook it alters the form that interaction must take. This applies to mediation by technology as a whole, the more we use mediation by technology as a means of communicating the less we're exercising communication by unincorporated elements, body language, spacial factors, arguably telepathic factors etc.
Technological mediation also reaches beyond the interactions being mediated. Even by simply being poked on facebook back when that was a thing and then discussing it with the person the next day, the platforms reach goes beyond its literal boundaries. As facebook mediates more and more (as is its evident intent, they prioritise engagement) it will further shape interaction beyond the platform in spite of a lack of consideration for this aspect in its design. It's worrying how quickly new technologies become widespread due to the severe lack of feedback that can be delivered over short timespans. Though feedback on technical issues etc is also quicker now, processing of social issues remains at a speed mismatched to this.
Of course the situation in China is currently more severe, but a global paradigm towards subversive control also exists I feel as the sanctities of centralized power structures are losing credibility in the information age.
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Great Point! I have had several friends that while applying for a job with state or local government they shut down or limit their social media. I have heard many stories of persons being fired or denied a job only because of FB/social media. AND a few times during an interview the interviewer will ask to see the interviewee's FB page. I have had online prospects ask me for my FB as a type of resume. THIS IS INSANE! It is sad that China is doing this with such an organized effort but I STRONGLY suggest we already do it in the home of the Brave, just not in such a formal manner.
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Systems of control are nothing new, yes - they are simply changing form as the beings who seek control and the beings who they seek to control also change form and adapt to change. I agree about the insertion of technology being a problem in many ways - however, to some extent technology is able to be used for helpful or destructive purposes. While we would probably be aware of our telempathic abilities more without technology getting in the way, the technology does still provide a focal point for consciousness to use as a reference when communicating with others. If we are conscious to attune to our non physical connection with each other then technology doesn't need to exactly be a barrier to telempathy, rather it is just another form of communication. I would like to see much more attention given to development of telempathic connection though, certainly - but 'there's no money in that' - or at least not for sony, motorola and siemens.
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Good read!
Hundreds of millions of Chinese are also censored by Google/Youtube/Facebook and massive firewalls that do not let them get to outside of China web traffic.
It is very sad technology is being used this way, but the flip side is that places like steemit are popping up to combat this type of censorship.
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I have never visited China so I only hear of these things second hand, I have studied North Korea in some detail though and it appears that China operates in a similar, but somewhat less paranoid and imbalanced way.
I remember watching a defector from the Soviet KGB explaining how the Russians had developed a longstanding program of taking visiting groups from countries like China and basically indoctrinating them as communist virus carriers to go back to their homeland and to take on roles that propagated the Soviet agenda. I don't know the exact history of this in regards to China, but I suspect it is all very much connected.
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I am cranky but in general I am an optimist. While eating at a sushi bar I saw some negative news on China and the firewalls. I was casually speaking to my buddy next to me that 'I'm sure it isn't as bad as OUR media suggestions.' Then one of the guys preparing the sushi corrected me and told me he left China one year ago and it even worse than our media suggests. Crazy... but it was a moment of awarness. But I caution any of us from judging China. I disagree with BIG government, BUT what if (I'm sure it is the case) other countries hated us because of same sex marriages or our gun control. We are all different with different cultures and history. Regarding china even the Nazi like government is a culture... hehehe. See how I said don't judge but I compared them to Nazis. LOL But just because I disagree with China BIG GOVERNMENT doesn't mean it is my place.
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Unsurprising. China might be the only country openly flaunting the fact that they're rating people based on social reputation, but we all know that governments everywhere are doing this where-ever they can.
Even the Indian government started a system where they're using people's social media posts to find tax evaders. How long before they start looking for behavior deemed 'anti-nationalist' and tag people voicing unwanted opinions.
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The Chinese system is several orders of magnitude more disturbing and more clearly being used to deliberately mind control the population - but yes, several other governments are nudging towards a similar direction.
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its already was on Chinese rule isn't it ?? don't know why there government wants to control everyone's life ..
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@ura-soul splendiferous,It is nice to follow you. follow up I am sure very good sharing. I'm starting to read it now. I wish you continued success. I will continue to follow you. Take care of yourself, my dear friend .
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Thanks for reading!
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This post has received a 35.65 % upvote from @upgoater thanks to: @ura-soul.
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its already was on Chinese rule isn't it ?? don't know why there government wants to control everyone's life ..
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Control is generally motivated by fear, guilt and a lack of love which results in a lack of respect for free will.
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This post has received a 10.10 % upvote from @booster thanks to: @ura-soul.
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good job
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