[ExI] Singularity - Non-Gender Specific

[Giulio Prisco (2nd email)]

I don't think anything is gender specific -- we all know
cigar-smoking, football-loving women and men who love flowers and
stuffed animals.

Rather, as they know well in advertising, for cultural reasons men and
women relate best to different flavors of the same message. So it is a
positive feedback loop: there are more men than women speaking of
these things, and so of course the message is biased for a male
audience. No big deal or fundamental problem, just something to
correct.

2009/9/29 Natasha Vita-More <natasha at natasha.cc>
>
> I will be in Lisbon the second weekend of October speaking at the [INSIDE] conference.  This is a transdisciplinary event which addresses the sciences and arts of human-machine interfaces.  My talk will cover a transhumanist perspective of human enhancement as aiming for radical extension of personal existence, and which includes issues of the Singularity.  Of concern, and this was addressed on the IEET blog, why the Singularity appears to be male-centric.  I simply cannot shed any light on this phenomenon.  If anyone has psychological or theoretical pointers as to why this phonemic has happened, please let me know.  (That it is technological and women are not technological;.mathematical oriented is simply not a good enough defense because it is not true.)  There must be another reason.  Misogyny?  Does it trickle down from the top?
>
> Do you all think that could be the beginnings of another hijacking of terms, such as with "cyborg"?  With cyborg, which we all know was Manfred Clyne's description of a man-machine adaptive, self-regulating system for the purposes of space exploration.  Years later, Donna Haraway popularized the term cyborg to reflect a feminist theory.  Now the term is deeply engrained in academic and public sector as being attached to a feminist worldview.  I spoke to Clynes about this and he was quite certain that the feminist use of cyborg was wrong.
>
> Because the Singularity has a type of inference of chrysalises, it could a metaphor for the human species reaching a type of maturity in merging with AGI.  Because chrysalis is, on one hand, the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation; on the other hand it is well-known to women as a transformation stage from being fertile, reproductive organism to transforming into non-physically reproductive BUT intellectually productive, wise organisms.
>
> "For some women, menopause can transform their lives with the same power and force as a volcano. A woman may be radically different in now she lives and moves in the world, and this transformation affects all hose around her."...  Usually this means that a woman (whose instincts are to nurture and protect offspring), now reaching outside the body to nurture and protect life.  As with Rachel Carson, a scientist, whose chrysalis brought her deeper into the rigor of scientific study.
>
> Because the Singularity is so male-dominated, I wonder if it is not almost stirring up what might later be a larger issue of gender misappropriation now, which could lead to a strong gender appropriation.
>
> I think this is a darn good quesiton to pose to Vernor ... I'll get back to you all after I talk with him about it.
>
>
>  Natasha Vita-More
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> extropy-chat mailing list
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
> http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat
>



--
Giulio Prisco
http://cosmeng.org/index.php/Giulio_Prisco
aka Eschatoon Magic
http://cosmeng.org/index.php/Eschatoon