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JULY IS DISABILITY PRIDE MONTH

JULY IS DISABILITY PRIDE MONTH
Posted by jj on Jul 04, 2022 in News, Health and Safety, Equal Representation, Social Justice
JULY  IS  DISABILITY  PRIDE  MONTH

AmeriDisability describes Disability Pride as "accepting and honoring each person's uniqueness and seeing it as a natural and beautiful part of human diversity" and connects it to the larger movement for disability justice.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed on July 26, 1990, to prohibit discrimination against people with disabilities. Following this legislation, Boston held the first Disability Pride Day event in July 1990. Since then, Disability Pride events have been celebrated in this month  in cities around the country.  The number of cities celebrating Disability Pride continues to grow as Disability Pride continues to evolve.

This is all due to the hard work of disabled activists who have fought for equal representation and equity.  But a great deal of work remains to be done to ensure the needs of the disability community are met equitably.

Disability Pride Month is not yet a nationally recognized holiday, but in honor of the 25th anniversary of the ADA, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio declared July Disability Pride Month in 2015.  Since then this month has become an important time to honor the diversity and uniqueness of each person in the disability community and celebrate people who have disabilities. 

With more than 160 million people living with chronic diseases and disabilities in the U.S., the National Health Council (NHC) provides a unified voice for people with chronic diseases and disabilities by advocating for increased access to quality, high-value, sustainable, equitable, and affordable health care for all.  There are innumerable non-profit organizations dedicated to addressing many other injustices faced by the disability community.  A number of them are listed at  http://www.bazelon.org/resource-library/disability-rights-organizations/

Having a better understanding of the term “ableism” can be a first step in helping you be an advocate for the disability community.

ABLEISM

Ableism is any form of discrimination in favor of non-disabled people. It comes in many different forms that range from subtly offensive language to outright prejudice. Some lesser-known examples of ableism include sayings such as “That’s so lame,” or “My suggestion fell on deaf ears.” Using a class of disability as an idiom or to illustrate a point can offend and alienate disabled people.

Ableism can also come from well-intended actions. It’s important that disabilities be acknowledged, without unduly affecting the expectations of the disabled individual. Ignoring a disability or pretending it doesn’t exist is a form of ableism. The language we use and the way we acknowledge or fail to acknowledge disabilities are important.  Let Disability Pride Month serve as a chance to highlight ableism and how it plays into our own unconscious biases.  

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GAS PRICES & CORPORATE GREED

GAS PRICES & CORPORATE GREED
Posted by jj on Jul 03, 2022 in News, Economic Justice
GAS PRICES & CORPORATE GREED

There are a number of reasons for high gas prices but the reasons some are trying to make you believe just are not true.  Do yourself a favor and learn the truth.  It will help you make your decision when you go to the polls.

 A law in Florida (at least one positive thing about the state) prevents fuel price gouging after hurricanes.  A federal law would protect everyone during disastrous circumstances like we are experiencing now instead of making corporations & their executives even wealthier.

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COMPUTER SCIENTIST, ELECTRICAL ENGINEER and TRANSGENDER ACTIVIST

COMPUTER SCIENTIST, ELECTRICAL ENGINEER and TRANSGENDER ACTIVIST
Posted by jj on Jun 29, 2022 in Women In Science, Technology, & Math (STEM)
COMPUTER SCIENTIST, ELECTRICAL ENGINEER and TRANSGENDER ACTIVIST

 

Lynn Conway  (1938 - )

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

She worked at IBM in the 1960s and invented generalized dynamic instruction handling, a key advance used in out-of-order execution, used by most modern computer processors to improve performance. She initiated the Mead-Conway VLSI chip design revolution in very large scale integrated (VLSI) microchip design. That revolution spread rapidly through the research universities and computing industries during the 1980s, incubating an emerging electronic design automation industry, spawning the modern 'foundry' infrastructure for chip design and production, and triggering a rush of impactful high-tech startups in the 1980s and 1990s.[6][7][8][9][10][11]

Early life and education[edit]

Conway grew up in White Plains, New York. Conway was shy and experienced gender dysphoria as a child. She became fascinated by astronomy (building a 6-inch (150 mm) reflector telescope one summer) and did well in math and science in high school. Conway entered MIT in 1955, earning high grades but ultimately leaving in despair after an attempted gender transition in 1957–58 failed due to the medical climate at the time.[citation needed] After working as an electronics technician for several years, Conway resumed education at Columbia University's School of Engineering and Applied Science, earning B.S. and M.S.E.E. degrees in 1962 and 1963.[12][13]

Early research at IBM[edit]

Conway was recruited by IBM Research in Yorktown Heights, New York in 1964, and was soon selected to join the architecture team designing an advanced supercomputer, working alongside John Cocke, Brian Randell, Herbert Schorr, Ed Sussenguth, Fran Allen and other IBM researchers on the Advanced Computing Systems (ACS) project, inventing multiple-issue out-of-order dynamic instruction scheduling while working there.[6][7][8][14][15] The Computer History Museum has stated that "the ACS machines appears to have been the first superscalar design, a computer architectural paradigm widely exploited in modern high-performance microprocessors."[9][10][11][16][17]

Gender transition[edit]

After learning of the pioneering research of Harry Benjamin in treating transsexual women[18] and realising that gender affirmation surgery was now possible, Conway sought his help and became his patient. After suffering from severe depression from gender dysphoria, Conway contacted Benjamin, who agreed to provide counseling and prescribe hormones. Under Benjamin's care, Conway began her medical gender transition.[19]

While struggling with life in a male role,[19] Conway had been married to a woman and had two children. Under the legal constraints then in place, she was denied access to their children after transitioning.[19]

Although she had hoped to be allowed to transition on the job, IBM fired Conway in 1968 after she revealed her intention to transition.[20] IBM apologized for this in 2020.[21]

Career as computer scientist[edit]

Upon completing her transition in 1968, Conway took a new name and identity, and restarted her career in what she called "stealth-mode" as a contract programmer at Computer Applications, Inc. She went on to work at Memorex during 1969–1972 as a digital system designer and computer architect.[19][22]

Conway joined Xerox PARC in 1973, where she led the "LSI Systems" group under Bert Sutherland.[23][24] When in PARC, Conway founded the "multiproject wafers" (MPW). This new technology made it possible to pack multiple circuit designs from various sources into one single chip. Her new invention increased production and decreased costs.[25] Collaborating with Ivan Sutherland and Carver Mead of Caltech on VLSI design methodology, she co-authored Introduction to VLSI Systems, a groundbreaking work that would soon become a standard textbook in chip design, used in nearly 120 universities by 1983.[26][27][28][29] With over 70,000 copies sold, and the new integration of her MPC79/MOSIS innovations, the Mead and Conway revolution became part of VLSI design.[27]

In 1978, Conway served as visiting associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT, teaching a now famous VLSI design course based on a draft of the Mead–Conway text.[19] The course validated the new design methods and textbook, and established the syllabus and instructor's guidebook used in later courses worldwide.[30][31]

Among Conway's contributions were the invention of dimensionless, scalable design rules that greatly simplified chip design and design tools,[7][13][32] and invention of a new form of internet-based infrastructure for rapid prototyping and short-run fabrication of large numbers of chip designs.[7][33] The new infrastructure was institutionalized as the Metal Oxide Semiconductor Implementation Service (MOSIS) system in 1981. Two years into its success, Mead and Conway received Electronics Magazine's annual award of achievement.[34] Since then, MOSIS has fabricated more than 50,000 circuit designs for commercial firms, government agencies, and research and educational institutions around the world.[35] VLSI researcher Charles Seitz commented that "MOSIS represented the first period since the pioneering work of Eckert and Mauchley on the ENIAC in the late 1940s that universities and small companies had access to state-of-the-art digital technology."[33]

The research methods used to develop the Mead–Conway VLSI design methodology and the MOSIS prototype are documented in a 1981 Xerox report[36] and the Euromicro Journal.[37] The impact of the Mead–Conway work is described in a number of historical overviews of computing.[33][38][39][40][41] Conway and her colleagues have compiled an online archive of original papers that documents much of that work.[42][43] The methods also came under ethnographic study in 1980 by PARC anthropologist Lucy Suchman, who published her interviews with Conway in 2021.[44][45]

In the early 1980s, Conway left Xerox to join DARPA, where she was a key architect of the Defense Department's Strategic Computing Initiative, a research program studying high-performance computing, autonomous systems technology, and intelligent weapons technology.[13][46]

In a USA Today article about Conway's joining DARPA, Mark Stefik, a Xerox scientist who worked with her, said "Lynn would like to live five lives in the course of one life" and that she's "charismatic and very energetic".[47] Douglas Fairbairn, a former Xerox associate, said "She figures out a way so that everybody wins."[47]

Conway joined the University of Michigan in 1985 as professor of electrical engineering and computer science, and associate dean of engineering. There she worked on "visual communications and control probing for basic system and user-interface concepts as applicable to hybridized internet/broadband-cable communications".[13] She retired from active teaching and research in 1998, as professor emerita at Michigan.[48]

Legacy[edit]

As sociologist Thomas Streeter discusses in The Net Effect:[49][50] "By taking this job, Conway was demonstrating that she was no antiwar liberal. (In response to critics, she has said, 'if you have to fight, and sometimes you must in order to deal with bad people, history tells us that it really helps to have the best weapons available)".[12] But Conway carried a sense of computers as tools for horizontal communications that she had absorbed at PARC right into DARPA – at one of the hottest moments of the cold war."

In the fall of 2012, the IEEE published a special issue of the IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits devoted to Lynn Conway's career,[51][52] including a career memoir by Conway[20] and peer commentaries by Chuck House,[53] former Director of Engineering at HP, Carlo Séquin, Professor of EECS at U.C. Berkeley,[54] and Ken Shepard, of Columbia University.[55] Subsequently the scope of Conway’s contributions gained wider retrospective attention. "Since I didn’t #LookLikeanEngineer, few people caught on to what I was really doing back in the 70s and 80s," says Conway.[21]

"Clearly a new paradigm had emerged . . . Importantly, imaginative support in terms of infrastructure and idea dissemination proved as valuable as the concepts, tools, and chips. The "electronic book" and the "foundry" were both prescient and necessary, providing momentum and proof-points."[53] James F. "Jim" Gibbons, former dean of engineering at Stanford University, further states that Lynn Conway, from his perspective, "...was the singular force behind the entire "foundry" development that emerged."[53] Kenneth Shepard, Professor of Biomedical and Electrical Engineering at Columbia University, stated that "Lynn's amazing story of accomplishment and personal triumph in the face of personal adversity and overt discrimination should serve as an inspiration to all young engineers."[55][56]

In 2020, NAE President John L. Anderson stated that "Lynn Conway is not only a revolutionary pioneer in the design of VLSI systems ... But just as important, Lynn has been very brave in telling her own story, and her perseverance has been a reminder to society that it should not be blind to the innovations of women, people of color, or others who don’t fit long outdated – but unfortunately, persistent – perceptions of what an engineer looks like."[21]

Transgender activism[edit]

When nearing retirement, Conway learned that the story of her early work at IBM might soon be revealed through the investigations of Mark Smotherman that were being prepared for a 2001 publication.[6] She began quietly coming out in 1999 to friends and colleagues about her past gender transition,[57][58][59] using her personal website to tell the story in her own words.[12] Her story was then more widely reported in 2000 in profiles in Scientific American[14] and the Los Angeles Times.[19] In a later Forbes interview, Conway commented "From the 1970s to 1999 I was recognized as breaking the gender barrier in the computer science field as a woman, but in 2000 it became the transgender barrier I was breaking."[21]

After going public with her story, she began work in transgender activism, intending to "illuminate and normalize the issues of gender identity and the processes of gender transition".[60] She has worked to protect and expand the rights of transgender people. She has provided direct and indirect assistance to numerous other transgender women going through transition and maintains a website providing medical resources and emotional advice. Parts have been translated into most of the world's major languages.[61] She maintained a listing of many successful post-transition transgender people, to, in her words "provide role models for individuals who are facing gender transition".[62] Her website also provided news related to transgender issues and information on sex reassignment surgery for transsexual women, facial feminization surgery, academic inquiries into the prevalence of transsexualism[63] and transgender and transsexual issues in general.[64][65]

She has also advocated for equal opportunities and employment protections for transgender people in high-technology industry,[66][67][68][69][70][71] and for elimination of the pathologization of transgender people by the psychiatric community.[72][73]

Conway has been a critic of the Blanchard, Bailey, and Lawrence theory of male-to-female transsexualism that all trans women are motivated either by feminine homosexuality or autogynephilia.[74] She was also a key person in the campaign against J. Michael Bailey's book about the theory, The Man Who Would Be Queen.[75][76] American transgender rights activist Andrea James, Conway and University of Chicago economics professor Dierdre McCloskey wrote letters to Northwestern University, accusing Bailey of "conducting intimate research observations on human subjects without telling them that they were objects of the study."[74] American bioethicist Alice Dreger in her book Galilieo's Middle Finger criticized Conway for filing a lawsuit against Bailey which had "no legal basis," referring to her allegation that Bailey lacked a license as a clinical psychologist when he wrote letters in support of a young trans woman seeking to transition. According to Dreger, as Bailey did not receive compensation for his services, he would not have needed a license in Illinois, and was "completely forthright in his letters supporting the women, both about the fact that he had only had brief conversations with them (as opposed to having provided them with extensive counseling) and about his own qualifications and expertise...[and] even attached copies of his CV." As Dreger argues, "presumably all this was why [Illinois] never bothered to pursue the charge."[77] In response, Conway argued that Dreger "deflects attention away from Bailey's book and the massive trans community protest, and caricatures the entire controversy as nothing more than a vicious effort by three rather witch-like women to 'ruin the life' of a brilliant scientist. In doing so, she stoops to new lows as a dirty-trickster by misquoting sources, exploiting sleazy innuendos and fabricating entire story-episodes in order to defame the three women."[78]

Conway was a cast member in the first all-transgender performance of The Vagina Monologues in Los Angeles in 2004,[79] and appeared in a LOGO-Channel documentary film about that event entitled Beautiful Daughters.[57][80]

In 2009, Conway was named one of the "Stonewall 40 trans heroes" on the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots by the International Court System, one of the oldest and largest predominantly gay organizations in the world, and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.[81][82]

In 2013, with support from many thought-leaders in high-technology, Conway and her colleague Leandra Vicci of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill successfully lobbied the board of directors of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for transgender inclusion in the IEEE's Code of Ethics.[83] That Code, known within the profession as much as a code of honor as one of ethics, became fully LGBT inclusive in January 2014, thus impacting the world's largest engineering professional society, with 425,000 members in 160 countries.[84][85][86] In 2014, Time Magazine named Lynn as one of "21 Transgender People Who Influenced American Culture."[5] In 2015 she was selected for inclusion in "The Trans100".[87]

Personal life[edit]

In 1987, Conway met her husband Charles "Charlie" Rogers, a professional engineer who shares her interest in the outdoors, including whitewater canoeing and motocross racing.[19][88] They soon started living together, and bought a house with 24 acres (9.7 ha) of meadow, marsh, and woodland in rural Michigan in 1994.[19] On August 13, 2002, they were married.[15][57][89] In 2014, the University of Michigan's The Michigan Engineer alumni magazine documented the connections between Conway's engineering explorations and the adventures in her personal life.[90][91]

Awards and honors[edit]

Conway has received a number of awards and distinctions:

  • Electronics1981 Award for Achievement, with Carver Mead[92]
  • Harold Pender Awardof the Moore School, University of Pennsylvania, with Carver Mead, 1984[93]
  • IEEE EAB Major Educational Innovation Award, 1984[94]
  • Fellow of the IEEE, 1985, "for contributions to VLSI technology"[95]
  • John Price Wetherill Medalof the Franklin Institute, with Carver Mead, 1985[96]
  • Secretary of Defense Meritorious Civilian Service Award, May 1985[48][97]
  • Member of the National Academy of Engineering, 1989[98]
  • National Achievement Award, Society of Women Engineers, 1990[99]
  • Presidential Appointment to the United States Air Force Academy Board of Visitors, 1996[100]
  • Honorary Doctorate, Trinity College, 1998[101]
  • Electronic DesignHall of Fame, 2002[102]
  • Engineer of the Year, National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists and Technical Professionals, 2005[103]
  • Named one of the "Stonewall 40 trans heroes" by the Imperial Court Systemand the National LGBTQ Task Force, 2009.[81][82]
  • Computer Pioneer Award, IEEE Computer Society, 2009[7]
  • Member of the Corporation, Emerita, The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, 1993–2010[104]
  • Fellow Award, Computer History Museum, 2014, "For her work in developing and disseminating new methods of integrated circuit design."[105][106][107][108][109][110]
  • Honorary Doctorate, Illinois Institute of Technology, 2014[111]
  • Steinmetz Memorial Lecture, (Invitational), IEEE/Union College, 2015.[112][113][114][115][116]
  • IEEE/RSE James Clerk Maxwell Medal, 2015[117][118][119][120][121][122][123][124]
  • Magill Lecture in Science, Technology and the Arts (Invited), Columbia University, 2016[125][126]
  • Honorary Doctorate, University of Victoria, 2016[127][128][129][130][131]
  • Fellow Award, American Association for the Advancement of Science(AAAS), 2016[132][133][134][135]
  • Honorary Doctorate and Commencement Address, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 2018[136][137][138][139]
  • Pioneer in Tech Award, National Center for Women in Technology (NCWIT), 2019[140]
  • Lifetime Achievement Award, IBM Corporation, 2020[141]

IBM's apology[edit]

In 2020, 52 years after IBM fired her for being transgender, IBM officially and publicly apologized to Conway;[142][143][144][145][146][147] IBM held a public event "Tech Trailblazer and Transgender Pioneer Lynn Conway in conversation with Diane Gherson" (IBM's senior VP of HR); IBM's Director of Research Dario Gil said "Lynn was recently awarded the rare IBM Lifetime Achievement Award, given to individuals who have changed the world through technology inventions. Lynn's extraordinary technical achievements helped define the modern computing industry. She paved the way for how we design and make computing chips today – and forever changed microelectronics, devices, and people's lives."[141]

Selected works[edit]

  • Mead, Carver; Conway, Lynn (1980). Introduction to VLSI Systems. Addison-Wesley. ISBN0201043580.
  • Conway, L. (February 1981). "THE MPC ADVENTURES: Experiences with the Generation of VLSI Design and Implementation Methodologies"(PDF). Xerox PARC Technical Report VLSI-81-2.
  • Conway, L. (September 23, 1982). "The Design of VLSI Design Methods"(PDF). Proc. VUB European Solid-State Circuits Conference (Invited Lecture). Vrije Universiteit Brüssel, Brussels, Belgium: 106–117.
  • Conway, Lynn (2012). "Reminiscences of the VLSI Revolution: How a Series of Failures Triggered a Paradigm Shift in Digital Design"(PDF). Solid-State Circuits Magazine. Vol. 4, no. 4. IEEE. pp. 8–31. doi:1109/MSSC.2012.2215752.
  • Conway, L. (October 2018). "The Disappeared: Beyond Winning and Losing". Computer. Vol. 51. IEEE Computer Society. pp. 66–73.
  • Conway, Lynn (2011). "IBM-ACS: Reminiscences and Lessons Learned from a 1960's Supercomputer Project"(PDF). In Jones, C. B.; Lloyd, J. L. (eds.). Dependable and Historic Computing: Essays Dedicated to Brian Randell on the Occasion of his 75th Birthday. Springer-Verlag. pp. 185–224. ISBN 978-3-642-24541-1.
  • Conway, Lynn. "Lynn Conway's IBM-ACS Archive". University of Michigan. Retrieved June 4, 2016.
  • Conway, L.; Randell, Brian; Senzig, D. (February 23, 1966). "Dynamic Instruction Scheduling"(PDF). IBM-ACS.
  • Rozenberg, D.; Conway, L.; Riekert, R. (March 15, 1966). "ACS Simulation Technique"(PDF). IBM-ACS.
  • Conway, L. (August 25, 1967). "MPM Timing Simulation"(PDF). IBM-ACS.
  • Conway, L. (November 29, 1967). "ACS Logic Design Conventions: A Guide for the Novice"(PDF). IBM-ACS.
  • Conway, L (October 31, 1967). "A Proposed ACS Logic Simulation System"(PDF). IBM-ACS.
  • Conway, L. (August 6, 1968). "The Computer Design Process: A Proposed Plan for ACS"(PDF). IBM-ACS.

Patents[edit]

  • US 5046022, Conway, Lynn; Volz, Richard & Walker, Michael, "Teleautonomous System and Method Employing Time/Position Synchrony/Desynchrony", issued September 3, 1991.
  • US 5444476, Conway, Lynn, "System and Method for Teleinteraction", issued August 22, 1995
  • US 5652849, Conway, Lynn & Cohen, Charles, "Apparatus and Method for Remote Control Using a Visual Information Stream", issued July 20, 1997
  • US 5719622, Conway, Lynn, "Visual Control Selection of Remote Mechanisms", issued February 17, 1998
  • US 5745782, Conway, Lynn, "Method and System for Organizing and Presenting Audio/Visual Information", issued April 28, 1998

References[edit]

  1. ^Saari, Peggy; Allison, Stephen; Ellavich, Marie C. (1996). Scientists: A-F. U-X-L. ISBN 978-0-7876-0960-3.
  2. ^"CHM 2014 Fellow "For her work in developing and disseminating new methods of integrated circuit design"". Computerhistory.org. Archived from the original on July 3, 2016. Retrieved April 10, 2018.
  3. ^Lee, John A. N. (1995). International Biographical Dictionary of Computer Pioneers. Fitzroy Dearborn. ISBN 1-884964-47-8.
  4. ^"Computer Pioneers - Lynn Conway". IEEE. Archived from the original on November 10, 2014. Retrieved November 10, 2014.
  5. ^ Jump up to:ab "21 Transgender People Who Influenced American Culture". Time. May 29, 2014.
  6. ^ Jump up to:ab c Smotherman, Mark. "IBM Advanced Computing Systems (ACS) – 1961–1969".
  7. ^ Jump up to:ab c d e "Lynn Conway: 2009 Computer Pioneer Award Recipient" Archived January 3, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, IEEE Computer Society, January 20, 2010.
  8. ^ Jump up to:ab "IEEE Computer Society Video: Lynn Conway receives 2009 IEEE Computer Society Computer Pioneer Award" on YouTube, July 30, 2010.
  9. ^ Jump up to:ab "Event: IBM ACS System: A Pioneering Supercomputer Project of the 1960s", Computer History Museum, February 18, 2010.
  10. ^ Jump up to:ab "Computer History Museum Events: IBM ACS System: A Pioneering Supercomputer Project of the 1960s" Archived September 28, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, Computer History Museum, February 18, 2010.
  11. ^ Jump up to:ab "Historical Reflections: IBM's Single-Processor Supercomputer Efforts – Insights on the pioneering IBM Stretch and ACS projects" by M. Smotherman and D. Spicer, Communications of the ACM, Vol. 53, No. 12, December 2010, pp. 28–30.
  12. ^ Jump up to:ab c Lynn Conway, "Lynn Conway's Retrospective Part I: Childhood and education," February 9, 2005.
  13. ^ Jump up to:ab c d Kilbane, Doris. (October 20, 2003.) "Lynn Conway: A trailblazer on professional, personal levels." Archived June 8, 2008, at the Wayback Machine Electronic Design, via electronic design.com. Retrieved on September 24, 2007.
  14. ^ Jump up to:ab Paul Wallich, "Profile: Lynn Conway—Completing the Circuit Archived October 4, 2013, at the Wayback Machine," Scientific American, December 2000.
  15. ^ Jump up to:ab Dianne Lynch, "The Secret Behind 'Project Y': One Woman's Success Story — 'What Works, Works'", ABCNews.com, November 29, 2001.
  16. ^Smotherman, Mark. "IBM ACS Reunion – February 18, 2010, in California".
  17. ^"The IBM ACS System: A Pioneering Supercomputer Project – Video". YouTube. Archived from the original on December 21, 2021.
  18. ^Benjamin, Harry (1966). The Transsexual Phenomenon. Julian Press. ISBN 9780446824262.
  19. ^ Jump up to:ab c d e f g h Hiltzik, Michael A. (November 19, 2000.) "Through the Gender Labyrinth." Archived October 15, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times Magazine, page 1. (Free reprint. Retrieved on September 19, 2007.)
  20. ^ Jump up to:ab Conway, Lynn (2012). "Reminiscences of the VLSI revolution: How a series of failures triggered a paradigm shift in digital design" (PDF). IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine. IEEE. 4 (4): 8–31. doi:1109/MSSC.2012.2215752. ISSN 1943-0582. S2CID 9286356.
  21. ^ Jump up to:ab c d Alicandri, Jeremy. "IBM Apologizes For Firing Computer Pioneer For Being Transgender...52 Years Later". Forbes.
  22. ^"Lynn Conway's Retrospective PART III: Starting Over". Ai.eecs.umich.edu. May 12, 1960. Retrieved December 5, 2013.
  23. ^Goldberg, Adele J. (September 1980). "About This Issue..." ACM Computing Surveys. 12 (3): 257–258. doi:1145/356819.356820. ISSN 0360-0300. S2CID 27661653.
  24. ^Walker, Rob; Tersini, Nancy (1992). Silicon Destiny: The Story of Application Specific Integrated Circuits and LSI Logic Corporation. Walker Research Associates. ISBN 0-9632654-0-7.
  25. ^"Sense of Wonder Motivates VLSI Chip Revolutionary, Lynn Conway". American Association for the Advancement of Science. Retrieved March 20, 2020.
  26. ^Conway, Lynn (December 31, 2012). "The 'Sutherland Letter' of 1976".
  27. ^ Jump up to:ab "Impact of the Mead-Conway VLSI Design Methodology and of the MOSIS Service". ai.eecs.umich.edu. Retrieved March 13, 2020.
  28. ^Paul Wallich, "Profile: Lynn Conway—Completing the Circuit," Scientific American, December 2000.
  29. ^Gina Smith,"Unsung innovators: Lynn Conway and Carver Mead: They literally wrote the book on chip design Archived December 26, 2008, at the Wayback Machine," Computerworld, December 3, 2007.
  30. ^The MIT'78 VLSI System Design Course: A Guidebook for the Instructor of VLSI System Design, Lynn Conway, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, August 12, 1979.
  31. ^Paul Penfield "The VLSI Revolution at MIT" by Paul Penfield 2014 MIT EECS Connector, Spring 2014, pp. 11–13.
  32. ^Carliss Y. Baldwin and Kim B. Clark (2000). Design Rules: The Power of Modularity. MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-02466-7.
  33. ^ Jump up to:ab c National Research Council (1999), Funding a Revolution: Government Support for Computing Research, National Academy Press (excerpt)
  34. ^"Impact of the Mead-Conway VLSI Design Methodology and of the MOSIS Service". ai.eecs.umich.edu. Retrieved March 22, 2020.
  35. ^"The MOSIS Service – More than 50,000 designs in 25 years of operation", http://www.mosis.com/%7C2008
  36. ^THE MPC Adventures: Experiences with the Generation of VLSI Design and Implementation Methodologies, Lynn Conway, Xerox PARC Technical Report VLSI-81-2, January 19, 1981.
  37. ^THE MPC Adventures: Experiences with the Generation of VLSI Design and Implementation Methodologies, by Lynn Conway, Microprocessing and Microprogramming – The Euromicro Journal, Vol. 10, No. 4, November 1982, pp 209–228.
  38. ^Allocating Federal Funds for Science and Technology, by Committee on Criteria for Federal Support of Research and Development, National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, National Research Council, National Academy Press, Washington DC, 1995, page 75.
  39. ^"Figure II.13: Technological Developments in Computing", in Allocating Federal Funds for Science and Technology, National Academy Press, Washington, DC 1995, page 75.". Ai.eecs.umich.edu. May 7, 1999. Retrieved December 5, 2013.
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  76. ^Conway, Lynn (July 16, 2003). "Shockingly defamatory official publicity by the US National Academies for Bailey's book". lynnconway.com.
  77. ^Dreger, Alice (March 10, 2015). "Galileo's Middle Finger: Heretics, Activists, and One Scholar's Search for Justice".
  78. ^Conway, Lynn (June 18, 2008). "Dreger's Defense of J. Michael Bailey: The Peer Commentary Papers Tear It Apart".
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  80. ^"Beautiful Daughters", a documentary by Josh Aronson and Ariel Orr Jordan, LOGO Channel, 2006.
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  82. ^ Jump up to:ab "Recognizing Outstanding Transgender and Gender-Nonconforming Individuals in the Struggle for LGBT Equality". National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. June 10, 2009.
  83. ^Beyer, Dana (January 8, 2014). "Leadership and the Value of Exceptional Allies". Huffington Post.
  84. ^"IEEE at a Glace". IEEE.
  85. ^"IEEE Code of Ethics". IEEE.
  86. ^McCarty, Maureen (January 13, 2014). "The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers Adopts LGBT-Inclusive Code of Ethics". HRC.
  87. ^"The 2015 Trans 100".
  88. ^Forman, Ross (September 18, 2013) "Transgender pioneer reflects on sports past". Windy City Times.
  89. ^"A Wedding Trip to Mackinac Island". 2002. Archived from the original on September 28, 2002.
  90. ^Nicole Casal Moore,"Life, Engineered: How Lynn Conway reinvented her world and ours Archived January 6, 2018, at the Wayback Machine," The Michigan Engineer, College of Engineering, University of Michigan, Fall 2014, pp. 42–49.
  91. ^Marcin Szczepanski and Evan Dougherty,"A Place to Be Wild," Michigan Engineering, October 8, 2014.
  92. ^"The 1981 Achievement Award – Lynn Conway, Carver Mead" by Martin Marshall, Larry Waller, and Howard Wolff, Electronics, October 20, 1981
  93. ^"Penn Engineering: The Harold Pender Award". Archived from the original on July 5, 2008.
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  95. ^"Services Update". Ieee.org. Retrieved April 10, 2018.
  96. ^"Franklin Institute honors eight physicists", Physics Today, July 1985.
  97. ^"Secretary of Defense Meritorious Achievement Award, May 1985", Meritorious Service Award, May 1985.
  98. ^NAE Member Directory, Section 05. Archived October 4, 2008, at the Wayback Machine (year from The White House Office of the Press Secretary)
  99. ^"Society of Women Engineers: Achievement Award Winners". Archived from the original on February 16, 2012.
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  101. ^"100 years of engineering excellence". Archived from the original on June 15, 2002. Retrieved August 17, 2008., Trinity Reporter, Trinity College, Hartford, CN, Winter 98.
  102. ^"Electronic Design Hall of Fame – 2002 Inductees", Electronic Design, October 21, 2002.
  103. ^"NOGLSTP to Honor Aberson, Conway, and Raytheon at Awards Ceremony in February" Archived October 2, 2008, at the Wayback Machine, Press Release, National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists and Technical Professionals, January 25, 2005.
  104. ^"The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Members of the Corporation". Draper.com. Archived from the original on December 10, 2013. Retrieved December 5, 2013.
  105. ^""Lynn Conway: 2014 Fellow", Computer History Museum, 2014 Fellow Awards". Computerhistory.org. Archived from the original on July 3, 2016. Retrieved April 10, 2018.
  106. ^Computer History Museum (May 29, 2014). "Computer History Museum 2014 Fellow Lynn Conway". YouTube. Archived from the original on December 21, 2021. Retrieved April 10, 2018.
  107. ^""Lynn Conway: Fellow Award Acceptance Speech", Computer History Museum, April 26, 2014" (PDF). Ai.eecs.umich.edu. Retrieved April 10, 2018.
  108. ^Computer History Museum (May 20, 2014). "2014 Fellow Lynn Conway". YouTube. Archived from the original on December 21, 2021. Retrieved April 10, 2018.
  109. ^"Oral History of Lynn Conway" (PDF). Computer History Museum. February 24, 2014.
  110. ^""Thank Lynn Conway for your cell phone" by Nicole Casal Moore, Michigan Engineering, 2014-04-24". Engin.umich.edu. Archived from the original on July 1, 2017. Retrieved April 10, 2018.
  111. ^"Illinois Institute of Technology, ITT Commencement", May 17, 2014.
  112. ^"Electrical & Computer Engineering ‹ Log In". Muse.union.edu. Retrieved April 10, 2018.
  113. ^Gregg Millett (March 17, 2015). "Steinmetz Memorial Lecture on Schenectady Today". Muse.union.de. Archived from the original on December 21, 2021. Retrieved April 10, 2018 – via YouTube.
  114. ^"Technology innovator to headline Steinmetz Memorial Lecture". Union.edu. Retrieved April 10, 2018.
  115. ^""IEEE Online (Slideshow): Our Travels Through Time: Envisioning Historical Waves of Technological Innovation", The 2015 Steinmetz Memorial Lecture by Lynn Conway, Union College, Apr 21, 2015" (PDF). Sites.ieee.org. Retrieved April 10, 2018.
  116. ^"Steinmetz Memorial Lecture". Ny6mediashare.ensemblevideo.com. Retrieved April 10, 2018.
  117. ^"IEEE/RSE James Clerk Maxwell Medal", December 2014.
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  119. ^"2015 IEEE Honors: IEEE-RSE James Clerk Maxwell Medal – Lynn Conway", IEEE TV, July 2, 2015.
  120. ^"IEEE/RSE 2015 James Clerk Maxwell Medal Ceremony and Lecture – Professor Lynn Conway". IEEE-TV. November 12, 2015.
  121. ^Conway, Lynn (November 12, 2015), "Our travels through time: envisioning historical waves of technological innovation", IEEE/RSE James Clerk Maxwell Medal Lecture, Royal Society of Edinburgh
  122. ^Shoop, Barry (November 12, 2015). "IEEE/RSE Maxwell Medal Citation for Lynn Conway" (PDF). Royal Society of Edinburgh.
  123. ^Farrar, Steve (November 12, 2015). "Review of Professor Lynn Conway's 2015 IEEE/RSE James Clerk Maxwell Medal Lecture" (PDF). Royal Society of Edinburgh.
  124. ^Linklater, Magnus (November 14, 2015). "'Life in stealth' of a microchip pioneer who migrated to a new identity: Lynn Conway beat transgender bias and began a revolution" (PDF). The Times (UK), Scotland Edition. pp. 36–37.
  125. ^Conway, Lynn (March 23, 2016), "Our Travels Through Techno-Social Space-Time: Envisioning Incoming Waves of Technological Innovation", 2016 Magill Lecture in Science, Technology and the Arts, Columbia University
  126. ^Adams, Jesse (April 7, 2016). "Magill Lecture: Visionary Engineer Lynn Conway BS'62, MS'63 Heralds Dawn of the Techno-Social Age". Columbia University.
  127. ^"University of Victoria News, Leaders in computing, athletics, telecommunications and public service receive honorary degrees", September 14, 2016.
  128. ^UVic Transgender Archives (November 22, 2016). "Lynn Conway UVic Convocation Nov. 9, 2016". YouTube. Archived from the original on December 21, 2021.
  129. ^"Lynn Conway: Honorary Doctor of Engineering". University of Victoria. November 9, 2016.
  130. ^Mary Sanseverino, orator (November 9, 2016). "Professor Lynn Conway's Citation for the Degree Doctor of Engineering, Honoris Causa" (PDF). University of Victoria. Original physical document archived at University of Victoria Libraries, Transgender Archives. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 15, 2017.
  131. ^"What Words Will You Leave to Guide Them" (PDF). University of Victoria. Lynn Conway Honorary Degree Comments & Convocation Quoem. November 9, 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 15, 2017.
  132. ^"Lynn Conway. AAAS". Aaas.org. Retrieved April 10, 2018.
  133. ^"2016 Fellow". AAAS". Aaas.org. Retrieved April 10, 2018.
  134. ^"O'Hara, Delia (28 August 2017). "Sense of Wonder Motivates VLSI Chip Revolutionary, Lynn Conway". AAAS". Aaas.org. Retrieved April 10, 2018.
  135. ^"Member Spotlight. "Lynn Conway". AAAS". Aaas.org. Retrieved April 10, 2018.
  136. ^Robertson, Zach (October 18, 2018). "Computing pioneer to receive honorary U-M doctorate". Michigan Engineering News. Archived from the original on June 15, 2019.
  137. ^University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Winter 2018 Commencement: Honorary Degree Recipients (December 16, 2018). "University of Michigan Video". YouTube. (t = 0:46:22 to 0:56:56).
  138. ^"Citation: Lynn Conway, honorary Doctor of Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Winter 2018 Commencement" (PDF). December 16, 2018.
  139. ^University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Winter 2018 Commencement: Lynn Conway Commencement Address (December 16, 2018). "University of Michigan Video". YouTube. (t = 1:11:40 to 1:20:52).
  140. ^"2019 NCWIT Summit: Lynn Conway – Pioneer Award Ceremony". Nashville, TN. May 16, 2019.
  141. ^ Jump up to:ab Alicandri, Jeremy (November 18, 2020). "IBM Apologizes For Firing Computer Pioneer For Being Transgender...52 Years Later". Forbes. Retrieved November 21, 2020.
  142. ^Maurice, Emma Powys (November 20, 2020). "Business giant IBM finally apologises for firing a computer pioneer 52 years ago just because she was trans". PinkNews.
  143. ^Hiltzik, Michael (November 30, 2020). "Column: IBM apologizes for firing a transgender pioneer, a half-century later". Los Angeles Times.
  144. ^Page, Sydney (November 23, 2020). "In 1968, IBM fired Lynn Conway for being transgender – She finally got an apology". The Lily (Washington Post).
  145. ^Kane, Roni (November 29, 2020). "IBM fired U-M professor Lynn Conway for coming out as trans in 1968. 52 years later, the company apologized". The Michigan Daily.
  146. ^Assunção, Muri (November 20, 2020). "IBM apologizes to 'tech trailblazer' Lynn Conway for firing her for being transgender, 52 years after the fact". New York Daily News.
  147. ^Cramer, Maria (November 21, 2020). "52 Years Later, IBM Apologizes for Firing Transgender Woman". The New York Times.

Further reading[edit]

  • Saari, Peggy; Allison, Stephen (1996). Scientists: The Lives and Works of 150 Scientists. New York [u.a.]: UXL. ISBN9780787609603.

External links[edit]

 Media related to Lynn Conway at Wikimedia Commons

 

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THE INDIVISIBLE DIGITAL ATTACK ON OUR FREEDOM

THE INDIVISIBLE DIGITAL ATTACK ON OUR FREEDOM
Posted by jj on Jun 27, 2022 in Social Justice, Background
THE INDIVISIBLE DIGITAL ATTACK ON OUR FREEDOM
  • EDITORS UPDATE: The fate of the deal has become more uncertain in recent weeks after Musk threatened to walk away, citing concerns over fake accounts.
  • Musk said there were three “unresolved matters” that will need solving before he can move forward with the takeover.

This post by Julia Wiklander lays out what should concern us regarding the threat social media poses for all of us.

The Indivisible Digital Attack On Our Freedom To Think and What You Can Do About It

By Julia Wiklander of Girl’s Globe

Despite initial reluctance by the board of Twitter, Elon Musk struck a deal to purchase the social media giant for USD 44 billion. This makes him the sole owner of Twitter. Elon says that his intentions are to uphold the important “town square” that Twitter can be. Yet, his takeover should remind us of the current invisible digital attack on our freedom to think.

“You should never have an information space like this owned by one person. No matter what their ideals are.”

Susie Alegre, Human Rights Lawyer

What ultimately swayed the board to go forward with the sale, were the perspectives of Twitter’s shareholders. Would this be profitable for them? The answer was Yes. The decision to sell to Elon Musk by the Twitter board was a profitable deal.

Our massive public spheres of communication are controlled by individuals who want, and need, these platforms to turn a profit.

This will time, and time again, prove to go before the benefits of its users.

In 2021, Frances Haugen blew the whistle on how Facebook prioritizes profit over people. She shared internal documents showing how the company knew that it was doing harm, yet did nothing. This included, the ill effects for young girls’ mental health and even its influence in genocide.

Digital violence against women has been experienced and witnessed by 85 % of women who use the internet.

Hate speech, bullying and discrimination lives on these platforms, with close to no regulation.

Musk says he’ll defend free speech and fight censorship, yet, simultaneously black employees are suing him for racial discrimination.

Actor and feminist activist Jameela Jamil wrote on Instagram about her decision to leave Twitter following Musk’s takeover. Her public decision was followed by digital attacks of hate and threats from men online.

“I don’t want a freedom of hate speech because it is detrimental to the freedom of speech of the oppressed as they face such horrific and scary real life consequences for objecting to their oppression. This is a move towards (esp straight male) white entitlement. Nobody else is safe there if they do not think the already HORRIFYING vitriol on the app is enough “freedom.” It’s about to become the Purge and some sort of crypto bro fever dream I fear.”

Jameela Jamil

So, how does Big Tech get into our heads?

On April 27, 2022, I attended an online event organized by OpenDemocracy. The panel discussed big tech’s influence on our freedom of thought. Human Rights Lawyer and author of Freedom to Think, Susie Alegre, explained how big tech decides what we see, hear and experience; and how that in turn deprives us of independent thought.

Big tech’s products are built to be addictive, and they are gaining so much information about us – as we continuously use them in our daily life.

Harvard Professor Shoshana Zuboff and author of Surveillance Capitalism, said at the same event, “We’ve tended to underreact to this new [digital] power – information warfare that uses our family photos and all our personal information in a benign form of power to get into our heads.” 

“It’s the weaponization of our own information against us ordinary citizens in our everyday lives.”

Shoshana Zuboff

Artificial Intelligence is using our data to not only improve their services to us, Zuboff explains. It goes far beyond targeted advertisement. We don’t know what the algorithms look like, how they collect data from us or how that data is used.

The data is not only used to decide what reality is presented to us, but in ways that can have severe consequences for democracy and human rights.

Google, Meta (Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp), Amazon, Twitter, Microsoft, and Apple are all private companies that use our data to grow in profit. When big tech get into our heads, it begins to dismantle our freedom and our possibility to live in a peaceful, democratic world.

“It should be guaranteed that a global information platform isn’t owned by a single person,”  

Susie Alegre

1.  What can we do to protect our freedom of thought?

 Understand that these companies won’t fix themselves – there needs to be oversight and protections put in place.

In 2020, Timnit Gebru, an artificial intelligence (AI) researcher who at the time worked at Google, had produced a research paper with evidence of ethical issues with Google’s Artificial Intelligence. In short, after attempts to silence her, she was fired from the company. Since then she has started her own research institute continuing her important work with Ethical AI.

On the subject of Musk’s purchase of Twitter, Timnit Gebru has tweeted her opinions.

“The pattern of claiming you want to make AI/AGI “beneficial for humanity” while showing us some of the most unsafe products, THEN convincing us that YOU will be the one saving us from the issues? Witnessing this constant pattern drives me nuts. And then the cycle continues.”

Timnit Gebru

Time and time again, we’ve seen that these big tech companies cannot self-regulate. They continue to silence those within the company who try to flag the faulty AI, or the ethical issues that they pose.

“What we need is recognition across the liberal democracy, that the digital must live in democracy’s house. So that our people and societies finally get to benefit from the fruit of this digital age.”

Shoshana Zuboff

Professor Zuboff reminds us to remember what these platforms were supposed to be. They were supposed to be networks she says, “not machine jungles driven by surveillance capitalism”.

Therefore, it’s not up to “Elon Musk or any other guy to make something better or worse”, it’s up to us to work politically.

Use your voting rights by contacting your representatives. Turn to your lawmakers. Demand legislation that will hold these companies accountable.

This week, the European Council have finally launched an agreement on the Digital Services At. It may not be perfect, but it is a first step towards overseeing platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

2. Prioritize self care by setting boundaries for your digital use

“I leave my phone downstairs. It’s small and liberating. Separating yourself is a good start.” 

Susie Alegre

Seperating yourself from your phone and other digital tools have proven to help you sleep better and stay in a better state of health. It gives you the freedom to choose what you allow into your brain, instead of the constant download chosen for you as you scroll.

This space provides you with the freedom to have interesting thoughts and give you the resources you need to make truly informed decisions about your life.

3. Keep learning

Continue to learn about what these massive companies know about you. Hey, there are even apps for that!

Tech moves fast, and our laws aren’t keeping up – so it really is up to us to keep a learning mindset to protect ourselves and others.

Shoshana Zuboff concluded the OpenDemocracy event by saying this, “Nothing is inevitable! We’re big, we’re strong. We can change it. Pay attention!”

It’s not even a question about whether or not to use Twitter – or any other big tech platforms for that matter. It’s about your awareness of it’s impact on you and the world. As well as, your awareness of the power you hold to be a part of creating positive change.

As for me, I’d rather not be at a “town square” where privileged white men are given space to shout their sexist and racist jokes (just have a scroll through Musk’s personal Twitter feed).

Instead, I’d like to create spaces where we can collectively solve the world’s most pressing issues. And do so by allowing space for underrepresented voices to be heard – and no longer be underrepresented!

I would also like to personally call for feminist tech activists to reach out to Girls’ Globe at info@girlsglobe.org, so that we can continue to learn and rise against the power of big tech together.

Julia Wiklander            Founder and President of Girls' Globe

Julia is a social entrepreneur at heart, dedicated to supporting changemakers to have a greater impact in the world. She’s an economist by training and has experience working within the United Nations and diplomacy. Together with her husband, Markus, she’s founded Grow & Redefine to support individuals to build a business (and life) of creativity and impact.

You can find more about organizations by, for, and about women and girls like Girl’s Globe in the Resource Library of www.womensvoicesmedia.org

 

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JUST ABOUT THE BABIES: NO...NO...NO!

JUST ABOUT THE BABIES: NO...NO...NO!
Posted by jj on Jun 26, 2022 in News, People
JUST  ABOUT  THE  BABIES: NO...NO...NO!

The cost in lives and harm is not important to them so long as the babies are birthed.  They will lie, deceive, threaten and con pregnant people - what ever they deem necessary - even where there is still access to legal abortions.

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