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Digital Sesame This is the future of technology in our societies

You have a score. You need points.

Can you climb the ladder and be a top quality citizen?

The year is 2027. Everything is in your country is digitised. Your Life; your thoughts; your desires - even your walk down the street as 1-10 cameras out of the 550 million nationwide track your every move.

Cameras tracking everything in the streets

These can, given the data, track ‘how’ you walk.

You can score points to become a better citizen. To get a better things in life. A better life for your family, your parents, your children all for the cause of being a better nation of people through the collection of the things you do every day.

These ‘things’ you do are collected as data.

These collections become huge amounts of things called data points. All data points are things like paying for things or being scored for things from other people like Uber or Grab.

These scores are seen as numbers. The numbers are added with lots of 1s or 0s. Sometimes the score will and up and equal -1 or -2 for example if you get a bad score.

The scores are made up with a thing called algorithms. A collection of algorithms that work together are sometimes thought of as Artificial Intelligence because of the huge amount of numbers and the huge amount of people and the huge amount of interactions.

Humans cannot count that much, that fast so we make maths and computers do the counting. This is Algorithms in action. The ‘thinking’ part in the algorithm is sometimes called artificial intelligence. Or, making a prediction.

This is EeDen

In 2027, the algorithms that humans invented through ever increasing levels of mathematics are what we play against in the social platform called EeDen.

EeDen: the artificial intelligence platform that ranks every citizen. It is built on the variety of algorithms that read your A or B (this or that) choices such as music or video likes or dislikes all the way to predictions for your life and how you will look as you get older or, as the police are predicting with the data, what you might do in the near future such as commit a crime, even before you actually commit the crime. Some call it ‘pre-crime’.

EeDen knows more and more

EeDen knows everything about you: where you are, where you going, what you ate, what you bought, what you might buy, your current heart rate, your current blood pressure, your likes, dislikes and things like the surprise birthday party you’re planning with 6 of your friends because you just received 4 adverts for party food and 3 video recommendations for top 10 party locations on the video platform: UQ.

When you see the buttons below, open them to see little quizzes based on this world you’re in.

You are part of the digital system and you cannot leave. Decisions are being made for you.

Remember there many pros to this system as there are cons. As with anything in life.

Electronic Ecosystem for all Denizens - EeDen

EeDen has a credit system. A credit system is like money. You can get money and give money away. If you work hard, you can earn money. If you don’t, you lose money. Money, in this system is called credit. You are given some money (credit) to start with. If you don’t be a good citizen, then you will lose credit.

How you score is more important that what your score is

In EeDen, how you earn credit is very important. Being a good citizen and doing good things will give you good credit like Lacie in our film.

Let’s say you have to pay bills like rent for your apartment. If you pay on time you get points and keep a good credit score. If you’re late, you may have a pass. If you’re late to pay rent 3 times or more then you lose points. And the more times you’re late the greater the loss.

Another example is buying the right kinds of food. If you buy too much sugary food then there may be a case of ill health, poor weight for your height or, if the data collected on you shows this over time, you may be flagged for a visit to the doctor who will examine you and offer a better diet. This goes for many types of food and things we eat or ingest. However, if you are buying baby food then this shows responsibility and your points increase. As too your adverts for baby products.

The Wheat麥子 App on your phone. This collects all actions and put it into your Eeden score

EeDen has an App that is attached to your phone. The App is called Wheat麥子 (known as: 麥子 pronounced: Mai Tze or as we know it: the credit system). All your sensors on your phone are attached to Wheat麥子 and feeds Wheat麥子 with data and, in turn, patterns of data (numbers, times, dates, locations and money) that is collected over time. This data is put directly into EeDen that is then collected and compared to your friends, your neighbours and groups of people that are similar to you right across the country.

How you interact with the people in you network or with people who are similar to you or with different groups makes your score go up or down. Are your online social media posts positive? Are you a ‘good citizen? Are you as the government advertises: A ‘Quality Person’?

Your phone is used for ALL purchases and nearly ALL human interactions. You phone knows where you are, what floor you’re on, what WiFi connection you are nearest, if your phone is on, if your phone is on a table, in your hand, if you in a car, bicycle or running - it knows and so does Wheat麥子.

Cash is very rare in 2027

Using cash is very rare and only for very specific purchases - usually to buy the things that the government doesn’t approve of. Cash is used for those people who live ‘Off The Grid’(OTG). OTGs are usually people over the age of 40 or people who have had enough of the rules placed on them. They don’t want to be tracked. They don’t’ like the idea of Way Posts where your life is assessed and then you are told how and what health support you can get or what schools your children can go to. OTGs are nomads, original thinkers or, as the news will tell us: thieves.

Way Posts: your life is sliced

What are Way Posts?

Way Posts are the 5 times in you life you are examined either by your teacher or doctor.

Way Posts are the 5 times in a person’s life that the points and interactions on Wheat麥子 are analysed then added to a person's EeDen account. You will then receive a report. This report is taken to your local school or doctor (depending on your age) who will add or takeaway health points to EeDen. This very stressful for many people because it usually has an affect on your family.

The group pressure of making sure you are a good citizen is never more effective if you know that your children could be taken out of the top level school they’re in and placed into the local middle grade school just because your points don’t add up after a Way Post assessment.

5 Way Post exams throughout your life

Way Posts happen at ages: 13, 18, 25, 35 and 45. If your points are poor at 45 you will have to wait until you’re 60 to see what kind of health support you will get in old age. At age 10, parent can apply for a Bamboo-level phone for children that can start the point collection and is added to your parent’s EeDen accounts.

Your points will affect your parent’s scores and their points will affect yours as a child. If your parents aren't careful with their life choices, no matter how hard you work at school, you will never score well in the Pre-4, P4, M4 or I4 school exams and you could be destined to be a low-level worker because of this.

Is it fair to have to guide your parents choices to increase your score?

Data Collection.

All phones collect data. Data are numbers. Numbers are added by what you do. All the time.

Phones collect A LOT of data.

How it collects data is down to the sensors that are being used at that time.

Maps use GPS and WiFi to locate you

All phones have sensors such as GPS, Wifi and Bluetooth are that are on all the time. Phones must be passed through law and government-only approved phones are allowed within the country.

There are illegal imported phones that can be seen around on the streets but these are strictly against the law. If you’re caught with one you can be docked EeDen points, jailed or, if you persist, sent on government re-education courses like people who drive badly.

All radios, transmitters and receivers are locked by the government on both types of phones. There are two types of government-approved phone: A Bamboo, National level phone and a Panda, International type. There are specialist types that are for high-level people in business and government but these are rare.

The Bamboo Phone

How does a phone know who you are? Can a phone ‘see’ you?

The Bamboo phones are standard phones with many styles by many different companies.

However, they all have the same standard government-locked sensors and radios in them:

  • 6G modems
  • Bluetooth
  • GPS
  • Accelerometer
  • Proximity sensors
  • Biometric (face ID, fingerprint, iris and voice signature (if the phone cannot hear you it will constantly listen for you))
  • Temperature
  • Magnetic field (which way are you facing)
  • Gyroscope (The phone in your pocket, on a table or in your hand?)
  • Up to 7 microphones depending on your cameras, ambient light (for your screen)
  • Pedometer (how far have you walked)
  • Barometer (air pressure - are you in warmer or colder parts of the country?)
  • Air humidity (the West of the country is dry and arid desert the East is up to 90% humidity)
  • And, due to the high number of nuclear power stations in the East and Eastern Island of Forsoma, a Geiger counter.

If you lived Eastern part of the country and travelled over to the island you’d see your gamma radiation alarms dip and rise constantly on the Geiger counter within your phone. It’s to alert you if there are accidents because of large earthquakes. The North of the country has parts that, due to past nuclear testing, has deadly levels of radiation too.

The Panda Phone

The other type of government phone is the Panda phone.

This is only given to you when you want to leave the country. When you get a passport, you are told to trade your Panda phone that not only allows you to connect to the international phone companies in other countries, but it has a special EC300 GPS lock. This tracks you to within 3 meters anywhere on the planet. Bamboo phones are tracked to within 25 meters if you’re not within reach of a public or school advertising beacon.

GPS chip on the government Bamboo Phone
Huawei’s version of their government Panda phone

How do you increase and maximise your points and scores?

Culture is ranked very highly, this is a good way to get points. Being cultural and understanding other culture is very good for a nation as a whole.

However this is also a very expensive way to get points. You can’t repeat culture points by visiting the same place twice. You have to visit new places. These have rewards from companies like airlines too.

Although, if you are high on the culture rankings, then your children have a better chance of being in the top schools.

Games

At this time in 2027, there are computer games produced by the government-linked arms of the giant software companies such as Hundred-K and HuaMo. These games give you scores that, as you play them, give you points and,the highly prized, point-bundles.

As a child, you can score points by playing the games from Wheat麥子’s ‘suggested apps’ menu. These games can be linked to your progress in school. It can add points to your school grades if you play well.

Your points are added up three times a year. When you are 13, you can legally play the ‘social denizen games’ that give you points that can be converted to money.

These allow you to trade in real life at the expense of your family’s points on EeDen. How you manage this is a family decision. All of these games are very, very popular with children in many schools competing to very high levels to out play one another. All games, it’s important to know, are linked to the maths and engineering national curriculum.

Scores are increased for all people who wear ‘trackables’ - this is triple scores for teenagers and their families until 18 years old who choose to combine health scores as a family.

Families who play and work together are usually the most successful making you a better family. This has always been the way of our nation long before EeDen.

It’s important to know that you are reading this Long before 2027. However,

The Game

below...

Look right. Do you see Yin Chu?

You must put yourself in her shoes.

Once, she was a child like you. She was learning how to use the technology around her.

How did Wheat, the games, the apps on her phone, help her?

What choices in EeDen did she have to make?

Created By
Glenn Malcolm
Appreciate

Credits:

With thanks to the EdTech community across Asia. Especially those who took the time to read and offer advice: David Procter Sean McHugh Ian Stewart James Knight *Nici Foote Clive Dawes And, Stefani Wu whose translation and constant advice helped enormously.

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