Reading about sesame credit is terrifying. I know it’s notoriously hard to predict the success of future technologies, but I’m pretty damn sure that sesame credit is going to work extremely well. It looks like best case scenario it will lead to long lasting political stability for China, and worst case scenario it will do the same thing everywhere else too. If it can survive for a single generation it will become a part of everyday life and people will just not really question it, like credit scores in the United States. Once it becomes a fact of life, I don’t see it going away.
Score above 800? 10% off groceries
Score above 1000? Get on the select list for college admissions
If the designers are really smart they will turn it into a game. People love getting positive feedback for things, and along with the negative feedback that it seems to already have it will become the mobile game of real life.
Fail a test? -10 points
Fail a class? -50 points
If the party wants to be able to control their citizens, I cannot think of a more effective way. Once sesame credit is fully integrated into everyday activities there will be no more room for dissent. You will probably need a decent score to just be able to exist, and anything can effect your score.
Show up on time to work? +1 point
Call in sick? -10 points
And once people are used to it they will end up enjoying it. People want the world to already be the right way. When they have a cheerful positive/negative reinforcement system there to tell you how to live, they will assume that it is there for a reason and that they should listen to it. Sesame credit is more than just a social credit score; it’s a social engineering platform.
Buy national brands? +1 point
Use a VPN? -2 points per minute
If having a good score can unlock even the most basic of rewards, people will probably enjoy increasing their number. Right now there are people who spend hours trying to optimize coupons that can make their groceries 10% cheaper. If sesame credit can do that, it will have followers for sure.
Talk to a known dissident? -100 points
Report anti-party behavior? +200 points
Of course, it also works to prevent people from dissenting against it.
Turn off location? -0.5 points per minute
Gameification works. We know how to get small children hooked on mobile games, so we know how to get them hooked on sesame credit.
Spend 10 points: 1 lottery ticket
Spend 20 points: 3 lottery tickets
Once it is there people will probably enjoy it. It gives their life meaning, it makes their life easier, and anyone who thinks otherwise is just jealous of your score. I wouldn’t be surprised if sesame credit ends up having an impact like paper money and banking did. Not a lot of technologies change the way people think like that, but this one could. At this point I hope that it fails in China, because if it succeeds like I suspect it will then I doubt it will take long for other countries to notice. Wouldn’t it be great if we could control our population in a way that makes them happy?
I’d like to work on something related to gameification for this last project. This is an algorithm in which people are but a part.