Ground Truth, a set of papers, edited by John Pickles, about the social implications of GIS, has contributed to the revival of an old debate between qualitative and quantitative approaches in human geography, This paper is intended to be a contribution to the debate: reactions and reflections triggered by the book rather than a review or evaluation of it. After acceptance of some of the criticisms of GIS and quantitative geography, attempts are made to defend them against other criticisms, and the paper concludes with some hopes for how the debate will continue.