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From: philip@pescadero.Stanford.EDU (Philip Machanick)
Newsgroups: comp.society
Subject: The Census
Message-ID: <1595@limbo.Intuitive.Com>
Date: 7 Jan 91 10:39:03 GMT
Sender: taylor@limbo.Intuitive.Com
Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University
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Approved: taylor@Limbo.Intuitive.Com

Of course, this discussion of Lotus Marketplace and its use of census 
information (and the census itself) is all very much related to computers, 
because the US Census in 1890 was a major impetus to the development of 
technologies which were later used in computers.

There is a fundamental question here: is inventing technology a good way of
solving social problems? Although the computer industry has led to undoubted
benefits to society, I don't believe that the ability to conduct a fuller
census is necessarily such an advance. Couldn't the population be estimated
with equal accuracy by statistical methods? Samples could be taken more often,
and very extensive checks could be run for a fraction of the cost of counting
the entire population (which in any case seems to be virtually impossible).
In particular, the count for disadvantaged groups is likely to be prejudiced
by attempting a full count. "Non-disadvantaged" people have permanent
addresses, are literate, and don't have any specific reason to be suspicious
of authority.

So while I agree that there is a trade-off between collective and individual
rights, I'm not sure if I buy the argument that a census is essential (maybe
it is in terms of the US constitution, but that's a different issue).

Philip Machanick