3.1357 Computers: Class, Gender and Metaphor (75)
Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Fri, 4 May 90 16:21:38 EDT
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 3, No. 1357. Friday, 4 May 1990.
(1) Date: 03 May 90 23:11:50 EST (12 lines)
From: James O'Donnell <JODONNEL@PENNSAS>
Subject: Male and Female He Created Them
(2) Date: Fri, 04 May 90 07:07 PDT (17 lines)
From: Robert Kirsner <IDT1RSK@UCLAMVS.BITNET>
Subject: computer gender and the Undergraduate
(3) Date: Fri, 04 May 90 10:28:00 EDT (6 lines)
From: Germaine Warkentin <WARKENT@vm.epas.utoronto.ca>
Subject: Onward from computer gender
(4) Date: 4 May 90 15:06:00 EDT (41 lines)
From: Mary Dee Harris <mdharris@guvax.georgetown.edu>
Subject: Metaphorical Approaches to Computers
(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 03 May 90 23:11:50 EST
From: James O'Donnell <JODONNEL@PENNSAS>
Subject: Male and Female He Created Them
From: Jim O'Donnell (Penn, Classics)
Shouldn't we be hoping that about half of them are male and half of them
are female? Otherwise, the `next generation of computers' could be a
long time getting here.
Anyway, I got curious and so removed the cover from mine to check: it's
definitely male.
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------25----
Date: Fri, 04 May 90 07:07 PDT
From: Robert Kirsner (213)825-3955 <IDT1RSK@UCLAMVS.BITNET>
Subject: computer gender and the Undergraduate
To conflate two issues here, I invoke the New Yorker wrestling cartoon
in which one of the managers says to the referee: "My man don't wrestle
'till we hear it talk", in reference to the ape-like being standing in
the other corner of the ring.
I use IT to refer to the Computer. I also use IT and THEY to refer to
those undergraduates who have failed to recognize that they are
Undergraduates, hence out of high school, and hence presumably at a
university. IT didn't show up in class yesterday because IT had a
midterm in another class, but IT still hasn't done the reading yet. I
also recommend wider use of IT in reference to administrators and
politicians: Even after Watergate, you have to give IT a lot of credit
for perseverence at least. Who knows, maybe IT will even get reelected?
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------16----
Date: Fri, 04 May 90 10:28:00 EDT
From: Germaine Warkentin <WARKENT@vm.epas.utoronto.ca>
Subject: Onward from computer gender
Now that we have dealt (comprehensively) with computer gender, how about
dealing with their class position? I tend to think of mine as a serf.
(4) --------------------------------------------------------------50----
Date: 4 May 90 15:06:00 EDT
From: "]" <mdharris@guvax.georgetown.edu>
Subject: Metaphorical Approaches to Computers
In light of Willard's comments about the sex/gender of computers,
perhaps I will reveal more of myself than I might wish, but I wanted to
share my early perceptions of computers.
My first job out of college (with a B.A. in Math and an M.A. in English)
was working for IBM as an assembly language programmer. I was assigned
to the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California, to write diagnostic
programs. In those days we believed that software was more reliable
than hardware; it might even have been true. Essentially the team I
worked with wrote programs to test the hardware used during the unmanned
space shots (Surveyor, at that point, which of course, dates me!).
As an assembler language programmer working on IBM/7040/7044/7094s in a
real-time environment, we had to do some very fancy programming since
[NB: technical alert -- ignore this part coming up if you don't
understand it] the 7040/7090 series computers had no interrupt feature.
Thus we had to count machine cycles and periodically allow our programs
to be interrupted, if need be. Because of the very concentrated concern
with the internal execution of the machine, I often found myself
imagining that I, as the programmer, sat inside it, moving bits around,
accepting stuff from outside and sending other stuff to the outside.
[That's how I used to explain the programming commands READ and WRITE
(aka GET and PUT) to my Computer Science students.]
When the IBM/360 series came out, there were a number of dials on the
front panel, one of which could be switched to ROM or RAM or ... [several
others which I don't recall]. These names were referred to as the
Chinamen inside the computer with abacuses that really made it work. I
guess my view of programming was similar to their function as being the
hidden mechanism that made the system work.
So what can we make of all that? I don't remember ever thinking of
the machine as anything but a machine -- without gender.
Mary Dee Harrismdharris@guvax.bitnetmdharris@guvax.georgetown.edu