Mind Your Manners

An exercise assignment on speculative design.
A future is imagined where courtesy is mandated by etiquette programs enforced by artificial intelligence and surveillance.

Subway riders are rewarded for good behavior with a star system. As users earn more stars, they can receive rewards such as reduced subway fare. Thus, subway systems can incentivize ethical behavior among its riders.

Check your score!

Unfortately, what I thought would be a utopian method for preventing man-spreading and other bad behavior quickly spiraled out of control. As with all systems, those with financial means can exploit the system and choose to exhibit horrendous manners, while the rest of us are stuck in too-polite-after-you paralysis.