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The Virtual World: Too Many Men And Too Few Women

Jun 15, 2018
by Caroline Miller
AI, bias in statistics, consequeces of male dominence in computer technology, Ellen Huet, Kristian Lum, ML, pluses and minuses of big data collection, Robo-Ethics, statisctics
2 Comments

Courtesy of google.com

Last week, I wrote a blog capped by a cartoon which amused my web manager.  (Click)  It exposed the gobbledygook terms that accrue to Artificial Intelligence (AI).  Apparently, the alphabet soup expresses different purposes.  Or, as a tweet from a recent article revealed, “It’s AI if you’re trying to raise money, ML [Machine learning] when you’re trying to hire developers and statistics when you’re actually doing it.” (Robo-Ethics, by Ellen Huet, Bloomberg Businessweek, May 21, 2018, pg. 50.)

Whether all this computer speak is necessary or merely intended to mystify the public, I don’t know.  I do believe, early programmers were dreamers who wanted to give shape to the virtual world.  I also believe their mistake was in putting too much faith in data collection.  The personal information of the many is a temptation that can lead to abuse if left as a monopoly in the hands of a few men.  

On the first point, it’s hard to argue against the successes of big data in helping shape our understanding of the world. It has led to the Higgs boson God particle discovery.  It has given us new insights into the human body. (Click)  Dark matter has become less dark because of it.  (Click)

Carrying these wonders to extreme, I wrote a tongue-in-cheek blog that questioned whether we might one day trust robots to serve as judges. (Click)  In reality, I don’t believe we will. Data collection, no matter how humongous, brings us no closer to an understanding of what’s fair than can the human heart.  In fact, the human heart is likely to skew our decisions and the data we collect.

Computer scientist Kristian Lum gives us an example of how crime statistics become skewed based on who gets arrested and where.  “…drug crimes are disproportionately taking place in communities of color.” (“Robo-Ethics,” by Ellen Huet, Bloomberg Businessweek, May 32, 2018, pg. 50.P   When researchers applied algorithms to that data set, they found “It would perpetuate or perhaps amplify the historical bias already in the data.” (Ibid, pg. 50.)

Her statement brings me to my second point, the one about information kept in the hands of a few men.  The paucity of women in computer science affects the type of  data we collect, data being no fixed thing as Lum points out. (Ibid pg. 50.)  Unless women plant their flag in the virtual world, they will lose it to the same patriarchy that has dominated the real one for thousands of years.  

 

(photo of founders of Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon)

 

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2 Comments
  1. Robert June 15, 2018 at 9:40 am Reply
    You wrote, "I wrote a tongue-in-cheek blog that questioned whether we might one day trust robots to serve as judges. (Click) In reality, I don’t believe we will. Data collection, no matter how humongous, brings us no closer to an understanding of what’s fair than can the human heart." Well, apparently the person occupying the position of US Attorney General, tasked with fairness, is using neither heart nor intelligence when it comes to decisions regarding our border with Mexico. Citing a biblical passage most often used to justify slavery in the 1850s by slave owners, Sessions shows only blind obedience to the intolerance and inhumanity of the person occupying the presidency.
    • Caroline Miller June 15, 2018 at 9:54 am Reply
      Then hope we shall never see robots as judges if they are created by people with flawed values.

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Contact Caroline at

carolinemiller11@yahoo.com

Portland, Oregon author Caroline Miller had distinguished careers as an educator, union president, elected official and artist/advocate.

Her play, Woman on the Scarlet Beast, was performed at the Post5 Theatre, Portland, OR, January/February 2015

Caroline published a serialized novelette, Marie Eau-Claire, on the website, The Colored Lens.  She also published the story Gustav Pavel,  a parable about ordinary lives, choice and alternate potential, on the website Fixional.co.

Caroline has published four novels

  • Ballet Noir
  • Trompe l’Oeil
  • Gothic Spring
  • Heart Land

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