One of the biggest problems of understanding the “other” is lack of exposure. If you aren’t dealing with the same issues on a day-to-day basis it’s difficult to really understand what is going on in someone’s life. This lack of exposure makes it easy to point out our differences. However, the more troubling outcome of limited exposure to the “other” is failing to see our similarities.

I guess you could make the argument that our online social networks provide insight into the wants, needs and concerns of people from other socioeconomic classes. But still, this communication is mediated by a computer screen. I think there are things left to learn from raw, uninhibited, everyday-life.

I don’t know Boston very well, but I’m curious to see how this experiment unfolds. An interesting follow up would be to place the same technology in two cities on opposite sides of the globe. Perhaps in the McDonald’s in Times Square and on the Champs Elysees, or in two cities in developed and developing nations.