Under the context of city-as-a-computer, an excellent resource to gain information is to record citizen’s daily behaviors (which could be regarded as electronic footprints). Such user behavior records support those Internet giants’ business, which is to map out one’s life in order to promote services and consumption. For instance, when using Google Map (and all other map apps), Google keeps asking users to update their personal information, including photo number, location of work, home location, etc. Through personal information, Google could customize its recommendation and promotion from restaurants to filling stations. Huawei also provides similar functions. When I first used SmartLife on Huawei, I realized it recorded my daily routine, including when I woke up, went to sleep, went out to work, and returned home, so that Huawei could send me pushes, for example, around 9 a.m. to remind me that I should go and take the next bus (usually arriving in 10 mins).
Moreover, Information Processing also shapes our political landscape. It is reported that over 20 cities nationwide have set up social credit rating systems governed by local governments. This is nothing new, as the credit evaluation systems put forward by either Alibaba or WeChat have embedded into almost every online leasing service providers, though credit evaluation systems of those two Internet giants are based on how much one spends inside their own business instead of being regulated by official laws or bureaus instead. Nevertheless, the social credit rating systems expand credit’s scope into the daily realm if the former are formalized in finance. The social credit rating systems gather information from public transportation to governmental departments (for example, the department of industry and commerce), including immoral behavior (such as stealing a ride) and fines (such as fines for traffic violations). The mechanism is often designed as one could no longer access some public service once one’s credit score is below a certain point. It is not only the dual penalty (for instance, one suffers from credit score deduction even after paying the fine) that occurs in the realm of the social credit rating systems but the standard of morality and integrity simplified to algorithms.
Shannon Mattern writes in A City Is Not a Computer:
Performance studies scholar Diana Taylor urges us to acknowledge ephemeral, performative forms of knowledge, such as dance, ritual, cooking, sports, and speech. These forms cannot be reduced to “information,” nor can they be “processed,” stored, or transmitted via fiberoptic cable. Yet they are vital urban intelligences that live within bodies, minds, and communities.
Likewise, the algorism-based urban planning emphasizes one’s online records since many cities’ management in China has eliminated information barriers to make sure information is shared among different bureaus. However, online records often fail to represent the citizens’ memory and participation, making a difference in the city’s vibe. Hutongs in Beijing never fit in any standard of order and efficiency in terms of urban infrastructure. And Beijing still keeps them to attach itself with a sense of tradition that reminds everyone from citizens to visitors of what embodies the vision and perception of “Beijing.”
Learn more about the social credit ranking systems:
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