[ExI] [ieet] Singularity - Non-Gender Specific

[Giulio Prisco (2nd email)]

Not what I am saying -- rather, for the same product you need to
fine-tune the message to sell to men or to women. Come on, any
advertising professional knows that. God knows how much money they
spend in gender-related studies, surveys and tests.

On Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 8:08 PM,  <natasha at natasha.cc> wrote:
> Come on.  Give me a thought-provoking response.  Not the same ole stuff that
> - men like tech/match; women don't.
>
>
> Quoting "Giulio Prisco (2nd email)" <eschatoon at gmail.com>:
>
>> 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
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>>
>
>
>
>



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