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[Sonlirain]

Yiff was the result of an attempt at creating a language called Foxish. Attempt failed, but that word stuck around and picked up sexual overtones.

I'm quite sure it used to mean and enthusiastic "Yes".
So my guess was that it ended as a "yes" when someone was asked for sexual RP and things just rolled downhill from there.

[SirQuiamus]

Yiff was the result of an attempt at creating a language called Foxish. Attempt failed, but that word stuck around and picked up sexual overtones.

I'm quite sure it used to mean and enthusiastic "Yes".
So my guess was that it ended as a "yes" when someone was asked for sexual RP and things just rolled downhill from there.

TheMoreYouKnow.jpg

full article: http://www.volkskrant.nl/buitenland/china-rates-its-own-citizens-including-online-behaviour~a3979668/

There's one rather terrible joke in that article:

Wheras in the US companies like Google or Facebook show themselves fighting for the privacy of their clients against the preying eyes of intelligence agencies, in China this is not the case.

*cringe*

[alway]

This makes me wonder all the wrong questions.

What if i was an otherkin who lives in china?
Or maybe a furry?

Would that give me negative points for being a disgusting deviant or such interests would pass as politically neutral?

In any way this is both hilarious and frightening.

So what this system would give them is a massive data set. Interpretation of that data set is the real question, but there's a pretty obvious way to do it; and it's actually essentially what the NSA does with their data sets. First, find a few horribly negative traits which have an obvious, unarguably bad influence on society: murder, terrorism, corruption, etc.

Then, do a massive statistical analysis to find a network of correlations. Now you've got your secondary moral ills which correlate positively with the first set. These would likely include things like separatist tendencies, frequent gambling trips, anger problems, etc. And you will also find a set of anti-correlations; being financially sound, loyal to the government, a calm demeanor; things like that.

This kind of analysis is at the heart of statistical AI techniques, trying to tease apart cause and effect from a web of correlation. The NSA does it with call metadata, for example, looking for patterns distinguishing known terrorists from average users. If applied more broadly in China, it will be interesting to see how it turns out. They may even come to the conclusion that activities believed previously to be harmful to society were, in fact, neutral or overstated. After all, such beliefs themselves come from a similar process of reasoning as a statistical analysis, but simply with a more biased and inaccurate methodology.

Which is to say, it could be that they find furries are 100% anti-correlated with corruption and terrorism and put them in charge of the government.

[andrea]

On one hand, it is scary.

On the other, I am curious to see what they do with it and how it will work. This thing opens up a lot of opportunities for research on society and extensive social engineering.

Which is cool but really, really scary.

[alway]

Indeed; I was only partially being facetious with my first post in this thread. This sort of thing is the natural evolution of large scale data analysis. The interesting thing to me is that this system could make it relatively transparent; it will doubtless be happening both on the corporate side (and to a limited degree has already) and the government side just about everywhere around the world, but in most of those cases, they need to keep a veneer of pretending they aren't, and so keep most of it and its results shrouded in secrecy. In that link about Target's pregnancy prediction algorithms, after determining a customer is pregnant, they send them flyers which contain stuff pregnant parents would be likely to buy, mixed in with random junk specifically placed to avoid creeping people out with the fact that they figured out their medical status.

[Zangi]

I'm pretty sure there are companies wholly dedicated to getting and analyzing data on anyone in Murrica already.  It may or may not be a few steps off of Orwellian though.

[Eric Blank]

This is absolutely terrifying, if that article isn't a steaming pile of shit. That abibaba internet agency is already rating people based on who they have as friends and relatives? Is that going to happen in the federal credit system too? Jesus, if it did you'd have to disown loved ones and lifelong friends who don't conform to what the credit program says is proper Chinese behavior or throw away your life.

[mainiac]

You can't disown family members in Chinese culture unless you are emigrating and completely breaking ties.  It's just... not logical.  Maybe in a few more decades but not the China of today.

[MrRoboto75]

How many years until we have the Sibyl System?