4 ms·

I loved the image of her, it's such an all-time classic, but I agree that her treatment was unfortunate. It seemed like a rush to narrative to me, which was tot

I loved the image of her, it's such an all-time classic, but I agree that her treatment was unfortunate. It seemed like a rush to narrative to me, which was totally unnecessary given how special the moment clearly was. To me, it kind of casts a pall over both such an amazing discovery and amazing moment of humanity. Remarkably I think today was the first time I recall seeing the name of even the director of the project (much less other teammates who may have had major roles) after having seen various posts about this over the past week.

whatshisface 8y ago
The Twitter/news world (it's amazing how closely they track each other) casts a pall over great achievements regularly. Remember the Hawaiian shirt guy? It's time to transced the reality TV stuff, amazing thing are happening.
SiempreViernes 8y ago
They did put in a lot of effort to prevent there being any ”the one person behind the picture” talk, from the grand gesture of having 4 simultaneous press conferences around the world, to small details like everyone starting the image reconstruction code at the same time on their laptops. If you go back I bet you will see other names in the texts you’ve read, but the collaboration itself didn’t try to sell anyone like the brains behind the picture, so there is not much to naturally focus on.
belorn 8y ago
Her name was on the front page of HN for almost the whole day under the story "Katie Bouman, the computer scientist behind the first black hole image". 900 upvotes, 500 comments, posted 5 days ago. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19632086 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19632086
speedplane 8y ago
> I agree that her treatment was unfortunate. It seemed like a rush to narrative to me, which was totally unnecessary given how special the moment clearly was. I don't see it that way. Combining societal elements to a scientific or engineering challenge is nothing new (e.g., Voyager's gold disc recording, Armstrong's one-small-step line, SpaceX launching a Tesla roadster). Similarly, imaging a black hole was an achievement of human society at large, and the fact that an achievement in one aspect of society (i.e., scientific knowledge) is linked to another (i.e., egalitarianism) makes the moment even more special. It makes the event feel like this isn't just a single narrow step in one direction, but movement forward of our entire civilization.
cheez 8y ago
Exactly. When I saw her, I saw the gleefulness that my children have when they achieve a goal. And to have their goal be pushed to the side because of their genitals seems completely unfair. Ironically, that's what the genital-police appear to be fighting against!

whatshisface 8y ago

The Twitter/news world (it's amazing how closely they track each other) casts a pall over great achievements regularly. Remember the Hawaiian shirt guy? It's time to transced the reality TV stuff, amazing thing are happening.

SiempreViernes 8y ago

They did put in a lot of effort to prevent there being any ”the one person behind the picture” talk, from the grand gesture of having 4 simultaneous press conferences around the world, to small details like everyone starting the image reconstruction code at the same time on their laptops. If you go back I bet you will see other names in the texts you’ve read, but the collaboration itself didn’t try to sell anyone like the brains behind the picture, so there is not much to naturally focus on.

belorn 8y ago

Her name was on the front page of HN for almost the whole day under the story "Katie Bouman, the computer scientist behind the first black hole image". 900 upvotes, 500 comments, posted 5 days ago. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19632086 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19632086

speedplane 8y ago

> I agree that her treatment was unfortunate. It seemed like a rush to narrative to me, which was totally unnecessary given how special the moment clearly was. I don't see it that way. Combining societal elements to a scientific or engineering challenge is nothing new (e.g., Voyager's gold disc recording, Armstrong's one-small-step line, SpaceX launching a Tesla roadster). Similarly, imaging a black hole was an achievement of human society at large, and the fact that an achievement in one aspect of society (i.e., scientific knowledge) is linked to another (i.e., egalitarianism) makes the moment even more special. It makes the event feel like this isn't just a single narrow step in one direction, but movement forward of our entire civilization.

cheez 8y ago

Exactly. When I saw her, I saw the gleefulness that my children have when they achieve a goal. And to have their goal be pushed to the side because of their genitals seems completely unfair. Ironically, that's what the genital-police appear to be fighting against!