Apparently the greatest concern regarding robot development is… mis-gendering the robots.
What does this mean?
Just that it’s time for a fisking!
A fisking! A fisking!
“Robots are the most powerful blank slate humans have ever created. Want a helpful robot? No problem. Want a mean one? Sure, if that’s what you’re into. A robot is a mirror held up not just to its creator, but to our whole species: What we make of the machine reflects what we are.
“That also means we have the very real opportunity to screw up robots by infusing them with exaggerated, overly simplified gender stereotypes. So maybe robots aren’t simply a mirror. ‘I think of it more as a funhouse mirror,’ says Julie Carpenter, who studies human-robot interaction. ‘It’s very distorted, especially right now when we’re still being introduced to the idea of robots, especially real humanoid robots that exist in the world outside of science fiction.’
“Perhaps the biggest issue—yet most subtle—is gender. How gender biases manifest in the design of voice assistants is well-worn territory. Research shows that users tend to like a male voice when an authoritative presence is needed and a female voice when receiving helpful guidance. Scientists are just beginning to consider how these gender biases materialize in physical robots.”
It is considered a truism amongst the Left that human beings are “blank slates” whereby all differences are “social constructs”, and that an enlightened elite can write upon this tabula rasa a Progressive agenda that will lead to a utopia, and further that inequalities and all problems with society occur because “The Kyriarchy” or some similar conspiracy of evil.
People tent to “like a male voice when an authoritative presence is needed” because men are perceived to be, at least on average, more authoritative than women, and people expect a “female voice when receiving helpful guidance” because women are perceived to be, at least on average, more helpful and caring than men.
This is because we are a sexually dimorphic species with physical and actual physiological differences. While sometimes subtle, there is often enough of a difference on average to notice that females are more or less likely to have some aspects that differ from males. Those the aspects that tend to more often be seen in females is considered “feminine” while those that tend to be more often seen in males is considered “masculine”. The Left, in contrast, considered the differences to be made up and that imposing differences based on sex is a form of oppression and that one is either a “man” or a “woman” depending on an alleged arbitrary application of those social constructs.
