I didn’t see what Alicorn said in her post as a start or continuation of politicization in here. I saw it as an observation of possible biases.
I agree with you on the issue that those camps are unneccessary and harmful, but I think that excluding this topic from rationalistic discussion would do more harm than good. As you say, modelling general human female as a mechanical system is standard in both thinking and in language. Why is it so? Must it be so? Is the same true with generic human male? Is there any value in making such generalizations of either sex? These all are questions which must be considered if that standardization is to be upheld.
Your mention about deleting your account made me realize that in a small way I’m taking part in this model-building. Using distinctively feminine nickname will affect how people read my replies, and I’m considering changing it. The problem is that when people don’t instantly recognize the poster as a female, they will assume that it is a man and this too will contribute to the traditional models. If anyone has good suggestions about solving this problem or finding a way around it, I would like to hear them :P
I would also like to find out why you think there would be loss of rationality with different gender distribution in LessWrong?
I didn’t see what Alicorn said in her post as a start or continuation of politicization in here. I saw it as an observation of possible biases.
I agree with you on the issue that those camps are unneccessary and harmful, but I think that excluding this topic from rationalistic discussion would do more harm than good. As you say, modelling general human female as a mechanical system is standard in both thinking and in language. Why is it so? Must it be so? Is the same true with generic human male? Is there any value in making such generalizations of either sex? These all are questions which must be considered if that standardization is to be upheld.
Your mention about deleting your account made me realize that in a small way I’m taking part in this model-building. Using distinctively feminine nickname will affect how people read my replies, and I’m considering changing it. The problem is that when people don’t instantly recognize the poster as a female, they will assume that it is a man and this too will contribute to the traditional models. If anyone has good suggestions about solving this problem or finding a way around it, I would like to hear them :P
I would also like to find out why you think there would be loss of rationality with different gender distribution in LessWrong?
(P.s. using a simplistic language algorithm http://www.bookblog.net/gender/genie.php (The Gender Genie) has determined that I’m a man)
Edit: linkfix
I think his point is that attempting to change the demographics for the sake of changing them would result in a loss of rationality.
I don’t think I necessarily agree, but that’s not the same as assuming the current gender ratio is ideal for some reason.