Feds Spend $345,019 To Make Computers With ‘Gender Sensitive Designs’

The gist of the idea is solid: women/females do not participate at the same rate as males do in the computer sciences. Further, the level of participation is markedly different. For example, it isn't often you find female database designers.

The approach....can't say that its good use of funding. But honestly, I can't say that it is a terrible use of funding, either. I can see some abstract ways that benefit could be had.

I think the root problem is that women have less overall participation in the non-biological sciences to begin with.

TL;DR: lets not throw out the baby with the bath water here.

originally posted by: FamCore
a reply to: neo96

stupidest way to spend $300K I could possibly ever think of.

Glad my tax money is going to good use

Oh now just when one thinks government can't sink any lower.

They always manage to lower that bar even more.

Puts a whole new meaning to "artificial intelligence".

Another bullspit study to justify somebody's bullspit research in order to get grant money paid for by us, the taxpayer. Follow the money and it probably shows she was related in some way to somebody that pulls strings in these government funded studies.

Add it to another stupid government study like the one where The National Institutes of Health once paid researchers $400,000 to find out why gay men in Argentina engage in risky sexual behavior when they are drunk. That's right. They did. Wonder who THOSE researchers were related to in the NIH?

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

The gist of the idea is solid:

I am gonna disagree with this as there are tons of women out there in the technical fields.

The problem is with people trying to anthropomorphize technology.

Can I still upload a disc onto my girlfriends laptop or will her drive eventually get phased out and replaced with a plugin device?

*SNIP*

You can't blame them! It's the chemtrails!!!

I think it's more about spending money frivolously that's the issue?

But seriously? You want to pull the "sexist" card? Hope I don't meet you in a bar because the language that you will hear come out of my mouth will HORRIFY YOU!

You might actually qualify as having PTSD!

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

The phrase which must not be spoken, even though it is scientifically proven is: The brains of men function differently than the brains of women.

www.fitbrains.com...

Math Skills: A brain area called the “Inferior-Parietal Lobule (IPL)” is normally larger in men than women. This area is thought to control mathematical processes, which explains why men typically can perform mathematical tasks better than women.

Emotions: Women typically have a larger limbic system than men, which makes them more in touch and expressive with their emotions. Women are usually more empathic and comprehensive in thinking, while men focus on exact issues and disregard impertinent information. Men have a difficult time understanding emotions not explicitly verbalized but can think more logically, while women have a more wholesome view of thinking & understanding but their emotions can sometimes influence decisions.

Sense of Direction: Men has shown to have better visual-spatial & geographic memory and thinking, meaning they tend to have a better sense of direction and remembering where locations and areas are.

Math, logic, explicitness, and spatial visualization are what computers do. Computers solve problems... men solve problems. My experience with my wife as well as past girlfriends was that women (generalizing here, be warned) often don't want a problem "solved," they want it understood, communicated, and related to. These are not things that run along a binary path, but computers are binary logic machines.

All that said, you can retrain your brain to utilize both hemispheres. Many men are in the psychiatry fields, showing they've trained their brains to operate empathetically and pick up inexplicit cues in their patients. Similarly, there are women who are masterful computer programers and logicians. My problem here, as is so often the case with me, I bristle at changing the system when the individual should be the one who makes the change. We don't need a feminized PC, we need a culture which encourages women to embrace logic and be explicit when appropriate just as we're pushing young men to be more empathetic and emotionally open.

originally posted by: eisegesis
Can I still upload a disc onto my girlfriends laptop or will her drive eventually get phased out and replaced with a plugin device?

Now thats just wrong.....I love threads like this. Provides some humor and light to a mostly dark , scary place......
to the OP

a reply to: neo96

Well...its only 350k. And it would be hard to argue that bias in the design wouldn't result from the natural relationship between creator/created.

A good example, and not really limited to computers (but very pertinent) is the QWERTY keyboard. Designed to slow down typing speeds to account for engineering limitations in the early dys of typewriters.

The only concern I really have is the review process for her results. This could end up having some crazy, far fetched nonsense that has a pseudointellectual/pseudofactual basis ("old wives tale's" start somewhere, right?), creating regulations that are hazardous to productivity.

BUt I can see how it would be possible that UI's and workflow might have a masculine viewpoint, and how the inclusion of feminine viewpoints could create a better machine.

Then again....i am very much an esotericist. I see great value in balancing the masculine with the feminine.

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

BUt I can see how it would be possible that UI's and workflow might have a masculine viewpoint, and how the inclusion of feminine viewpoints could create a better machine.

I just don't see it. Think a computers is about as asexual as it can get.

It' designed for a purpose. Everything else for function.

Oh Gods...just thought of something.

When are we going to be subjected to the "moral outrage" of connectors being referred to as male and female?

Engineering Professor: "Insert main connector into the designated port..."
Outraged SJW Students : "THAT'S SEXIST MICROAGGRESSION!"

Oh gods.
What have we become?

Lovecraftian Freudian Nightmares, that's what.

a reply to: GENERAL EYES

When are we going to be subjected to the "moral outrage" of connectors being referred to as male and female?

They would have to bascially change everything in this country.

From electrical engineering to our wall outlets, and everything else.

That terminology is used basically because everyone understands it, and requires little explanation.

originally posted by: eisegesis
Can I still upload a disc onto my girlfriends laptop or will her drive eventually get phased out and replaced with a plugin device?

Plugin device might represent male dominance, terms for it workers such as can I connect to your box when asking if you can remote to their computer to provide help...no go. Also we will no longer be mounting anything when referring to technology. Mounting media...no you won't. Mounting storage...Not on my watch.


You better come correct and get out of here with plug-in device.

Anyone remember idiocracy? Does this mean if you identify as a strong male you can have the hood ornament from the movie on your monitor?

pics.imcdb.org...

a reply to: neo96

Hey, don't get me wrong, I totally agree.
Simple.
Basic.
Gets the job done.

But there are groups out there in Universities who "don't get it" and want to change everything to have gender-neutral or "proper" pronouns.

I'm all for equality and understanding of persons regardless of gender identification, but some of these folks out there....oh gods, there simply is no pleasing them. I'm only in my 40's and I fear what the next three generations are going to bring to the world stage in the way of "progressive discourse".

How are they going to fit into the workforce when they can't focus or concentrate on the task at hand because of "rabid pronoun sensitivity"?

I'm frightened.

originally posted by: neo96
That terminology is used basically because everyone understands it, and requires little explanation.

If this gender fluidity nonsense catches on, the above common sense and standard knowledge will be lost within a generation or two. Western society has parodied the Biblical verse "choking on gnats while swallowing camels." But sure, let's go ahead and waste another $350,000 as supported largely by people who dismiss the "tiny amount of money" it represents while utterly losing their proverbial *snip* over a politician who proposes any $350,000 cut to a program they love.

So we will have PC PC's.

My wood stove looks a bit manly in fact, hope the missus doesn't want a pink one next.

originally posted by: GENERAL EYES
a reply to: neo96

Hey, don't get me wrong, I totally agree.
Simple.
Basic.
Gets the job done.

But there are groups out there in Universities who "don't get it" and want to change everything to have gender-neutral or "proper" pronouns.

I'm all for equality and understanding of persons regardless of gender identification, but some of these folks out there....oh gods, there simply is no pleasing them. I'm only in my 40's and I fear what the next three generations are going to bring to the world stage in the way of "progressive discourse".

How are they going to fit into the workforce when they can't focus or concentrate on the task at hand because of "rabid pronoun sensitivity"?

I'm frightened.

Don't be frightened, be pissed off! "Progressive discourse" can only move along its path when said path is not obstructed. More of us need to stand up, identify tradition, give it a warm hug, and demand discourse drop a U-turn mid-path and get it's ass back to a more sensible, less manic era.

Someone gets triggered when subjected to harshly male pronouns or technical microaggressions... GET OVER IT! It isn't anyone's problem but the individual that has decided to make it their own problem.

This crap, like making computers less threatening to women, will continue unless and until people stand up, flip double barrel middle fingers, and say loudly "Nope, not budging anymore. Your problem, NOT mine."