4 ms·

About car crash dummies: i know nothing about that field, but i suppose crash test dummies are build to represent the "most average human being", gender neutral

by bsaul 8y ago

About car crash dummies: i know nothing about that field, but i suppose crash test dummies are build to represent the "most average human being", gender neutral. The fact that women are a subcategory that require specially manufactured dummies is i think a scientific discovery. Not something the average person would have guessed... I suppose there are other subcategories ( obese peopl, old people, short people) that probably would benefit for custom made crash test.. On female voices not being recognized i'd like you to show me the article that tell this story, because it seems so obvious that i'm having a hard time believing it ( looks like something as obvious as understanding people speaking with different accents).

cimmanom 8y ago
But that just the thing. When only or mostly men are involved, “gender neutral” ends up being masculine (like the crash test dummies that had height and weight distributions like average men, not like average humans) because that’s our societal default. “Oh, women are a special subcategory.” No, we’re not. We’re half the fucking population.
- deleted 8y ago
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- bsaul 8y ago
  Let's take the car dummy example. Do you think gender is one of the most relevant distinction if you'd really want to dig interesting clues from your team, that professionals wouldn't have thought of ? If i were a team leader honestly i wouldn't care about gender first. I'd be more interested in recruiting people from different weights, sizes, ages, maybe even races, and medical backgrounds first. And then, maybe gender would come into play. For some problems gender is an important factor, for others it's not. The fact that this "gender" predicate divides the world into two half doesn't make it relevant per say. I could divide between blue eyes and brown eyes, or skin tan, or lactose tolerant, etc, and come up with fairmy big chunks. Now I do agree that differences between men and women are indeed so important that it's an very interesting criteria in many topics. Although for some reason i don't think that's the argument you want to base your reasoning upon.
shimms 8y ago
Like this one: https://makingnoiseandhearingthings.com/2016/07/12/googles-speech-recognition-has-a-gender-bias/ https://makingnoiseandhearingthings.com/2016/07/12/googles-s... AI/ML inherits the bias from it's trainers - this is pretty well accepted.

by bsaul 8y ago

cimmanom 8y ago

But that just the thing. When only or mostly men are involved, “gender neutral” ends up being masculine (like the crash test dummies that had height and weight distributions like average men, not like average humans) because that’s our societal default. “Oh, women are a special subcategory.” No, we’re not. We’re half the fucking population.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
bsaul 8y ago
Let's take the car dummy example. Do you think gender is one of the most relevant distinction if you'd really want to dig interesting clues from your team, that professionals wouldn't have thought of ? If i were a team leader honestly i wouldn't care about gender first. I'd be more interested in recruiting people from different weights, sizes, ages, maybe even races, and medical backgrounds first. And then, maybe gender would come into play. For some problems gender is an important factor, for others it's not. The fact that this "gender" predicate divides the world into two half doesn't make it relevant per say. I could divide between blue eyes and brown eyes, or skin tan, or lactose tolerant, etc, and come up with fairmy big chunks. Now I do agree that differences between men and women are indeed so important that it's an very interesting criteria in many topics. Although for some reason i don't think that's the argument you want to base your reasoning upon.

shimms 8y ago

Like this one: https://makingnoiseandhearingthings.com/2016/07/12/googles-speech-recognition-has-a-gender-bias/ https://makingnoiseandhearingthings.com/2016/07/12/googles-s... AI/ML inherits the bias from it's trainers - this is pretty well accepted.