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The Black Technologist Who Invented the First Internet Search Engine

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Re: The Black Technologist Who Invented the First Internet Search Engine

#141

Post by intopieces »

theoreticalCS wrote: post #137
intopieces wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As with anything, there are no universals. Happy you don't need affirmation that "someone like you" can succeed, has succeeded, and matters. I don't want to use my own (potential, theoretical) "minority status" to boost my own argument. That's cheap. Sufficed to say, the demand exists as evidenced by the supply: If no one cared, there'd be no clicks, no Black History Month, and no ongoing discussion about the topic :…

I guess. I just can't imagine any so called minorities appreciating the assumption that they are so fragile and need special treatment.

Why would a person who doesn't require validation in the first place be concerned with the assumption they are fragile and need special treatment? Seems like such a 'so-called' minority is fine either way.

Re: The Black Technologist Who Invented the First Internet Search Engine

#142

Post by rhcom2 »

h4nkoslo wrote: post #128
rhcom2 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't necessarily discern a person's racial makeup from just their skin tone so assuming these people have "microscopic amounts of black admixture" seems pretty ignorant. Basically you just made a list of light skin black people.

That's a revolutionary discovery; you should probably publish it immediately since it refutes decades of genetic research. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/9f67/21bf5954d1129d0212bc4f... http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/jour...

I didn't argue skin color wasn't genetic so I don't see how those papers support your assertion that light skin black people "clearly have microscopic amounts of black admixture." Neither paper even discusses race and race is certainly more than just your skin color.

Re: The Black Technologist Who Invented the First Internet Search Engine

#143

Post by sctb »

08-15 wrote: post #118
pizza wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Researchers also offer alternatives to the color-blindness discourse. Reason and Evans call for people to become "racially cognizant", that is they need to acknowledge the role that race plays in their everyday lives. Being racially cognizant also demands a continuous examination and reinterpretation of race and how it affects our lives. It is also important to balance looking at a person as an individual and ackno…

> reinterpretation of race In other words "making up shit". It's time to stop listening to this bullshit.

Please stop posting uncivilly and unsubstantively. We're trying to have thoughtful, insightful discussion, and name calling doesn't help us get there.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: The Black Technologist Who Invented the First Internet Search Engine

#144

Post by miraj »

the OP here. as it seems there are some queries in peoples' mind re: the article's title; I am copying below the author's thoughts (from her social media feed) about the article, which I think is useful.

"My latest piece for JSTOR Daily looks at a hugely influential technologist who is strangely absent from most lists of Black inventors. Alan Emtage invented the world's first search engine -- so I look at the massive impact of search, not only on how the web works, but how our brains work, too."

P.s. Am notifying the author about the discussion here. If she has time & so inclined, to engage.

P.p.s. as for myself, I was hoping to see interesting HN discussion about search before pre-Google, & how search is affecting our brain + thinking process.

Re: The Black Technologist Who Invented the First Internet Search Engine

#145

Post by gmarx »

chickenfries wrote: post #40
gmarx wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article is for Black History Month, a...holiday? here in the US which I think is now called "African American History Month". So does a guy from Barbados working in Canada not count now? I'm not good at that kind of math

If you're genuinely confused and not trolling, it's okay to use black as an adjective. African American is okay too if they are that, but the 90s trend of referring to everyone black as AA is over.

Not trolling. I think you either call it African American History month and write stuff about blacks who were descended from American slaves or you call it Black History Month in which case the inclusion of a Barbadan(?) working in Canada makes more sense

Re: The Black Technologist Who Invented the First Internet Search Engine

#146

Post by [deleted] »

rhcom2 wrote: post #142
h4nkoslo wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a revolutionary discovery; you should probably publish it immediately since it refutes decades of genetic research. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/9f67/21bf5954d1129d0212bc4f... http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/jour...

I didn't argue skin color wasn't genetic so I don't see how those papers support your assertion that light skin black people "clearly have microscopic amounts of black admixture." Neither paper even discusses race and race is certainly more than just your skin color.

[deleted]

Re: The Black Technologist Who Invented the First Internet Search Engine

#147

Post by Nomentatus »

danbruc wrote: post #127
Nomentatus wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why mention his race 'cause there's no such thing as unconscious bias and Valley funding and hires are as diverse as society is and... ah... oops, no, wait...

This did not really add something to what I said, I did not deny the existence of the problem. You have to argue why mentioning the race is helpful, why it helps to reduces biases. Why does it not do the opposite, why does mentioning the race not reinforce its importance?

I think I did mention that bias was unconscious; we all know brains are association machines, therefore associating more colors with computing achievements is obviously a good thing. If you know of a perverse effect, I'd be glad to hear of it.

Re: The Black Technologist Who Invented the First Internet Search Engine

#148

Post by Nomentatus »

tyingq wrote: post #130
Nomentatus wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cost of entry in the search market just went way, way up due to Google implementing neural nets extensively in its search algorithms (Deep Mind whatever.) No question about that. Someone else might find a way to do that better, however; if so they could now take the market away. (But that doesn't mean I think that's likely.)

The years of collected data on personalizing search results, what different demographics expect, etc...Is a big barrier as well. I believe they are able, for example, to know I want "Apache" the software organization even if I've never typed it before, because they've seen my previous software related searches. And...Injected some behavior based on searches by other people like me. Someone else is getting much differ…

I agree with all of that. I think it's all well known. Which is why I said I'm not saying that someone overtaking Google is likely - just more possible now.

Re: The Black Technologist Who Invented the First Internet Search Engine

#149

Post by tomp »

bglazer wrote: post #43
tomp wrote: post #17

I don't understand why one would point out a person's race (unless it's relevant to the situaiton), but since the title did... I cannot fanthom how anyone could call this person "black". If anything, his complexion is similar to what US people call "hispanic" (although to me that's just southern European, not a distinct race).

I can tell you why it's important to note the race of an underrepresented minority who made a notable contribution. I teach programming to a group of black young adults. Self image is very important to most young folks. Just seeing other black people who are successful computer programmers helps them imagine themselves as computer programmers. Identity matters to young people who are trying to shape their own self im…

Wouldn't it be better to encourage kids to not be racist, and thus encourage them to take inspiration by people different from them (different race, men/women, etc)?

Re: The Black Technologist Who Invented the First Internet Search Engine

#150

Post by ikeyany »

gragas wrote: post #131
ikeyany wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Young white children can see and relate to a large chunk of tech workers. Black people do not have that privilege. Have you noticed that young people generally achieve more when they can model themselves after those who are like them ?

Sure, but why is it deemed racist to empower white children?

It's not, but do you really think they aren't empowered to begin with?
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