Social credit, gossip on steroids

Recently, one of these superstars proposed that money will become irrelevant. This futurologist is also a billionaire. He predicts that robots and artificial intelligence will turn work into a hobby. Just like in a sci-fi movie, humans do not work, but technology takes care of all aspects of decision and production.

What then shall replace money? Society will turn to the extreme of socialism? All property and consumption equally divided to the non-working population by a governing body?

One alternative currency for that hypothetical non-working society already exists. In some places, social credit is already part of governmental initiatives to manage behavior, defining right and wrong. It will turn into currency.

Social credit systems aim at measuring social behavior. The system works based on data gathering on diverse aspects of the citizen life. For example, paying or defaulting tax and debt is a parameter. Alcohol consumption also counts. Penalties on driving or expenditure behavior are included too. Those parameters score citizens, ranked according to their social behavior. Those far from the desired behavior, can be blacklisted, with no access to certain services, credit, or eligibility to benefits. The system end up making an opinion, defining your fate. It will become a currency, partially replacing money.

A mundane example is widespread in our daily lives, although barely noticed. The last time you took an Uber, you were invited to rate and give feedback. This also happens when you make an online purchase, visit a restaurant, or sleep in a hotel. This experience sharing is social credit in practice. It’s gossip institutionalized. You do it for free, contributing to a system that promote or punish a certain behavior of service providers. It works according to how consumers define right or wrong.

The working environment is slowly adopting this model. LinkedIn already shows a glimpse of what a credit system for professionals will look like. There’s a visible trend among professionals exposing details once considered irrelevant. Ten years ago, LinkedIn was used for job hunting only; now, to remain relevant and maintain traffic, it promotes personal experience sharing. In the current algorithm, LinkedIn users cannot wait for projects to finish, risking oblivion. Internal company announcements, project kickoffs, small meetings, and partial milestones are all content to publish. Those failing in constant social media posting seem less busy, less engaged, or less successful. I wonder how long for HR departments to adopt social posts as part of the rewarding system.

As money confers value to things, social credit assigns value to behavior of people. The bright side is that people will be recognized for what they are, not what they have. It will be positive as long as individual values match with those of the system that assign credits. On the other hand, it will blur the difference between opinion and gossip.