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New York Subway rat tracker 🐀
Furry friends for your commute
A 2023 study estimates that there are 3 million rats currently residing in New York City. Honestly, that number was lower than I thought it would be, but it’s still a lot of vermin.
Rats in a little cage or at a pet store can be pretty cute. For some reason, when they roam free (and especially when they roam free underground) they suddenly become pretty revolting. I think rats get a bad rap, but they did start the bubonic plague.
Part of me wonders if the aversion to rats could be fixed if we stopped viewing them as a giant source of filth and started looking at them as furry friends we get to see in our daily commute. Yes, they carry disease, but at a distance, they’re quite endearing. What if Google Maps had a feature where you could photograph and track your favorite rats in their travels throughout the city?
There are many questions that come to mind as I think about this experience. How do we verify the rat's identity? Who gets to name the rat? Can a user adopt a rat? It’s a bit of a black hole, however, it could be a pretty funny way to rethink our perception of rats if it was properly executed. That said, I doubt this would be a very popular feature.
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