[krick]

Jesus. If that first video is true, then that's what should be top-upvoted submission on HN. Why isn't it better known? I mean, at least I personally never heard about it and I might be not the most informed person on the Internet, but certainly I'm not the least. And this is much more important thing to know than… well, everything I usually hear on the news.

I don't get often surprised by all that dystopian stuff, because I assume we already are quite fucked, but this one did surprise me. That's just crazy.

[pdkl95]

That video has been submitted numerous times, but it never got any attention.

To be clear, I believe there is some disagreement as if this is one or multiple programs in China, but that doesn't really matter; we need to defend against the establishment of this kind of program regardless.

The trick where positive reinforcement is used to trick people into wanting to participate is utterly terrifying... because it will work. It's obvious that it will work, because it is effectively the weaponization of "high school clique"-style tribalism and carefully re-framed self interest.

[guscost]

For some perspective, the weaponization of cliques and "othering" is very old, and it has worked for just as long. We call it politics.

But a state sponsored gamified social network where the incentives are all designed by the ruling class, and the penalties have the force of law, is pretty darn awful.

Hopefully the affected citizens prove to be as unpredictable and hard to control as others have in the past, because that's really their only hope.

[joveian]

It looks like it is starting to get some attention at least. Here is HN discussion of the article that seems possibly the primary source for the video: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10329733

It sounds like the system does not currently use politics and such, but the government would like to combine it with the existing citizen tracking system which is employer based.

And a BBC article: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-34592186

I think the US system is fairly insidious as well and has more government influence than it might seem (look into "redlining" for instance and the role the government played). Creditors can know quite a bit about your private life (particularly if you significantly outside the mainstream) and I don't think it is that uncommon for individuals to share credit scores. In any case, I think it is worth considering how "social trust systems" work everywhere and not just in the worst imagininable case. It is harder to think about in the less obviously centralized cases.