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Corporate Fallout Detector

Posted by michael on from the ideas-whose-time-has-come dept.

BandwidthHog writes "MIT student shows off Corporate Fallout Detector. Acts and looks kinda like a Geiger counter, but it's a UPC scanner with an internal, updateable database of corporate misdeeds, with both Pollution and Corporate Ethics modes. I want one."

2 of 267 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Man, they are really throwing the doors down by Dashmon · · Score: 5, Interesting

    They can. But they can also try to make it better. I, for one, think it's good to see students thinking of social instead of financial progress. As far as I know, that' the whole point of science.

  2. An excellent AND stupid idea. by mumblestheclown · · Score: 5, Interesting
    This is an EXCELLENT idea as far as using the barcodes as a link to a company's CSR/Ethical/Environmental/etc history.

    Ths is a STUPID idea as far as summarizing the result as a single-magnitude noise from a "geiger counter." Companies are large and complex--there aren't just "bad ones" and "good ones." there are interrelationships, hidden subsidiaries, and every manner of nonsense. put another way--remember that stuff about the brent spar oil platform that was sunk? it turns out that royal dutch shell was actually right and the (largely german) "environmentalists" didn't understand the science or engineering.

    the point is that under the current 'geiger counter', you'd get, say, one loud crack for royal dutch shell. under a more nuanced system, which is what is required, you'd have some way of making your own judgement based on your own values and understandings rather than somebody elses. no, it wouldn't be perfect, but it would be a hell of a lot better than the current cartoon idea.

    (incidentally, would nike get a big "crack?" as well? because nike's labor practices are seen as either laudable or despicable, depending on who you talk to).