Categories - Intertwingled: Information Changes Everything - page 33

we reveal choices and invite questions. Hardsides protect, spinners roll, carry-ons fit, and back-
packs are hands-free. Which features matter most? Which bag is best for you?
Figure 2-7. Categories reveal choices.
Of course, all taxonomies are imperfect, as is the language they're built upon. Let's say you want
a messenger bag. Is that under backpacks or duffels? Or how about a lightweight, hardside
carry-on with two wheels? Does that even exist? Like maps and myths, taxonomies hide more
than they reveal. They bury complexity to tell a story, and they always miss someone out. Some
things, like luggage, get lost by accident, while others - people, places, and ideas - are buried by
design.
Either way, each glitch in the matrix subtly changes understanding and behavior, which is why
this work often has moral weight. Classification has consequences, as Geoffrey Bowker and
Susan Leigh Star argue in Sorting Things Out .
Each category valorizes some point of view and silences another. This is not inherently a bad thing - in-
deed it is inescapable. But it is an ethical choice, and as such it is dangerous - not bad but dangerous. xxxiii
Taxonomies are treacherous because the easier they are to use, the harder they are to see. We
grab handles without scanning contents. We trust labels without knowing origin. In the Dewey
Decimal Classification, the system used in public libraries and taught in public schools, of the
100 numbers for religion, 88 are reserved for Christianity. Islam and Judaism each get one, while
Buddhism is lucky to get its own decimal point. xxxiv
Figure 2-8. Religion in Dewey Decimal.