China's Sesame Credit and the gamification of citizenship
- What should a Christian reaction be to China's Sesame Credit gamification of citizenship?
The hosts discuss China's Sesame Credit system, introduced by an Extra Credits video excerpt read on air: social-media behavior and purchases generate a citizen score, visible friend scores pressure users to drop low-scoring friends, and low scores threaten travel paperwork, loans, jobs, and internet speed. A host's friend Dave Herrick, who follows the Extra Credits channel, explains the mechanics; the hosts then weigh whether such a system could work in the West, contrast China's community-oriented culture with Western individualism and the US credit score, and riff on what price one would pay for friendships. The segment ends with the host's moral: a society gamified this way cannot hold up.
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