“Non-transparent, deterministic things that basically have a huge influence on your life that you have no ability to inspect, that’s…”
“…that’s absurd.”
“…that’s like science fiction.”

That’s like a credit score. The standard FICO credit score is determined by a secret algorithm that they protect via abuse of copyright and trade secret laws, and no matter how much it impacts your life, you have no legal recourse to see what goes on inside the calculation of your credit score.

You have a right to see your credit score estimates by the three major credit bureaus, and they have to pass on to you reports of specific factors that are impacting it, but their reports are not your official credit score, and they’re based on attempts to reverse-engineer the FICO algorithm. They can vary quite widely between the three for a number of reasons.

Think about that. It’s not just teachers, or convicted criminals. Everyone who’s ever needed to take out a loan to buy a house or a car–pretty much everyone, that is, because if you haven’t, you’re likely still young enough that it’s directly affecting you because it directly affects your parents–their lives are immensely influenced by a secret algorithm that they have zero insight into or power over.

“Putting the power back in the hands of citizens, as opposed to just relying on the government. And that actually speaks directly to the concept of democracy, right?”

Wrong. The concept of democracy, particularly American democracy, is “We the People … do ordain and establish this [government structure].” The concept is that the dichotomy expressed here of “citizens instead of government” does not exist; in democracy, government is “us”, not “them”.

That concept’s been badly corrupted over the last several decades, due largely to Libertarian influence, but it’s how the system is supposed to work, and it’s no surprise that when the system stops working that way, people by and large perceive that it’s simply stopped working.