“In A Virtual World, We May Need A Universal Character Score”

The opening of the most depressing thing I’ve read so far today, Eddie Earnest’s well-written Venture Beat essay about the possibility of humans being assigned a “character score” online, because American culture hasn’t yet been reduced enough to high-school level by Facebook, comic-book movies and reality television:

As the globe shrinks and our social worlds expand, the need for more transparency in both our on and offline dealings is increasing. In a virtual world, we may need a universal character score.

Before the Young’s Modulus measurement of elasticity, engineers had to guess when a material would fail. A chancy proposition in the context of bridge-building, yet a risk we still take when it comes to assessing the fortitude of a person’s character. When daily business was conducted face-to-face, judging character was a fairly straightforward, albeit highly subjective, process. Now, in a digitally connected world, assessing character can be a stubbornly elusive task.

The potential for a universal character score is huge. A standardized measure could help us decide everything from who to partner with on a business venture to whose yard sale we should attend — and everything in between. Measuring and quantifying personal character has long been considered an impossibility, yet we may find it helps us in both our social and professional digital interactions.”

Tags: