We are digitizing ourselves more and more in every which way we can. We will probably continue doing this until that one day when a Giant Flying Magnet visits the earth and accidentally erases all digital data. Or when that corporation controlling most power companies decide to hold electricity hostage and turns off the internet (topics for another post).
Unproven assumptions that are likely to be true:
In the future a good chunk of our lives will be virtual and we ourselves will have virtual representations online. Since we will do much of our activity online, our virtual selves (much like our real selves now) will develop reputations. Our reputation will be shaped by how well we participate, behave. Records of these will be collected, compiled, saved somewhere by someone where it is safe and permanent.
As the world completely digitizes, trust and privacy issues will be at the foreground. Honor filters will be put in place everywhere. Our reputation must be good to surpass honor filters which identify those who are trustworthy and those who are not. We will need to pass honor filters in order to participate in communities, commerce, conversations, everywhere people exchange and interact online.
A reputation is fragile, it is something to guard and protect. A good reputation will be something very valuable. A good reputation takes time to cultivate. You must start now. Today is not yet this future. You have time to establish yourself early by being a good digital citizen, a digizen?
Ahem, there is also time to build an entire farm of reputations. One could do this for good or for bad. I suggest doing things for good, but this can really only be done for bad. Unless it is intended as a way to protect identities as with a witness protection program. Other than that, it can really only be used for criminal profit.
Go get dirty like a good farmer. Till the soil and plant the seeds now. Come said future you will be ready for harvest. It's easy to start. Set up a fake set of users interacting with each other, helping build each other's reputation. Joe approves a Linkedin request that he and Jane worked together for years and he gives her a stunning testimonial. Jane purchases an eBay item from Joe and she gives him a super high rating. And so on. Might even be possible to automate this.
Well, this is just an idea for your information. Personally, I don't have time to be a criminal and do evil deeds. Which is why I am passing this on. But my advice is still what a friend use to always say in exit... "Don't be fraudulent!"
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