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You do realize that slavery is a current problem, right? Slavery is a multi-billion dollar industry and there are tens of millions of people enslaved today in t

• kbenson 11y ago
  Yes, but I also believe it's less as a proportion of population than it's ever been in the history of the world. There are approximately 7.3 billion people in the world[1], and there are over 35.8 million people in slavery[2]. That's less than half of one percent. But that doesn't matter, because slavery is bad, so any slavery, regardless of the amount is bad. So it could be 100 people in the world are enslaved, and we would still need to do something about it. But that's irrelevant. This is about terminology and wording. Do you really think anyone that's an actual subject of slavery cares if master and slave are used in some esoteric context to describe the relationship between inanimate objects and processes? Do you think they would prefer people spend their time arguing over this instead of actually doing something about the problem? The last thing we need is to cleanse our vocabulary of these terms. If we actually want to make a change, hiding is not the correct thing to do. Armchair terminology censoring isn't actually doing anything to help the problem, it's just providing a way to make people feel like they are helping without actually addressing any part of the real problem. Ultimately it's not just ineffective, but since it fulfills people's desire to feel like they are making a difference it's actual harmful in that it prevents some people from actually getting to the point they would do something. To make my point absolutely clear, using master/slave as a terminology to describe non-sentient processes is in no way condoning slavery, does not affect slavery, and does not harm anyone. Artificially linking the this concept with actual human slavery and the slave trade for the purpose of denouncing it is selfish, dishonest, and harmful. That said, I don't think most people are necessarily conscious of what they are doing when doing so, but that still leaves us with harmful. 1: http://www.worldometers.info/ http://www.worldometers.info/ 2: http://www.globalslaveryindex.org/ http://www.globalslaveryindex.org/
  • DasIch 11y ago
    You question a change to a status quo but ignore that the status quo deserves to be questioned just the same. The terms are clearly, obviously and unquestionably inspired by actual human slavery. That's in bad taste at best. Using the master/slave terminology so casually further weakens their original meaning. Not using the terms master/slave in a technology concept in no way erases awareness of the problem. Frankly to defend usage of these terms by suggesting using them in anyway promotes awareness and helps the victims of slavery, is disgusting. That's clearly not the case and not the goal of those defending the usage of these terms.
    • kbenson 11y ago
      > The terms are clearly, obviously and unquestionably inspired by actual human slavery. I did not say they weren't I just said they were accurate in many aspects of what they were describing. > Not using the terms master/slave in a technology concept in no way erases awareness of the problem. I did not say removing them erases awareness, I said (in summary) that it provides a placebo effect that keeps people from doing something that actually matters. I agree removing them will not affect awareness of the problem, because they have no relation to the problem. > Frankly to defend usage of these terms by suggesting using them in anyway promotes awareness and helps the victims of slavery, is disgusting. Then it's a good thing I didn't do that then. > You question a change to a status quo but ignore that the status quo deserves to be questioned just the same. Anyone wanting to change the status quo should not focus on this specific case to the detriment of similar ones, if they really care about it. Why stop at master/slave, when there's also captive as in captive portal, or for that matter serve, since one original meaning in the root latin was "slave",and all we care about is the original meaning, not how it evolved over time to mean additional things (such as how slave as a verb can mean to work hard), right?