Enter the latest, greatest application for your handheld or phone, "Red or Blue,"which uses Global Positioning Systems to tell you if you’re in a Republican or Democratic neighborhood. It will also tell you how much the area has donated to either party or pull up information about the top 100 donors surrounding where you stand. It's obvious this would be a great tool for canvassers and fundraisers. And journalists probably won’t have to spend so much time knocking on doors or sorting through spreadsheets to find that one archetypal Republican or typical Democrat for their stories.
But look, my life is full of strangers and the unexpected and I’m stunned by the data gluttons who'd use this. It seems like this country has developed a whole religion for those who want to know everything about other people, clump those strangers together in predetermined groups, and then avoid the groups they don’t like. The world is addicted to prediction (even though it mostly ends up with simple-minded prejudices). And, there’s something creepy when a creative mind comes up with a “Geiger counter” for people, and something wrong about classifying the hell out of the human race.
Posted by Lisa Lambert at October 13, 2004 05:12 PM