That would have been an impressive career whether she was trans or not.
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Lynn Conway's Story (2000)
11–20 of 46 posts
Re: Lynn Conway's Story (2000)
#12That would have been an impressive career whether she was trans or not.
Not just one but TWO impressive careers. She invented superscalar CPUs in her first career, was brutally fired by IBM for being trans, then rebooted her life in stealth from scratch, and not only invented but wrote the book on and taught VLSI design to a whole generation of designers, including industry giants like Guy L Steele and James H Clark (among many others).
She serves as incontrovertible proof of how utterly vile and wrong and morally and intellectually bankrupt the conservative transphobic bigots who abuse the technology Lynn invented to spread their hatred and mendacious political attacks are, who don't deserve to use any of the technology she created and shared for their hate mongering and bullying to destroy other people's lives that are none of their business.
IBM made a HUGE mistake firing her, but 52 years later finally sincerely turned the ship around, reformed, and apologized for their mistake and honored her.
How much longer will it take the rest of the transphobic assholes in the world, especially the Republican party and MAGA Cult who are divisively and diabolically trying to grab power by running this election on the abuse of trans and LGBTQA+ children and adults, even to the point of beclowning themselves by waging a pathetic losing Jihad against Mickey Mouse, to realize how fucking EVIL and WRONG they are, and finally shut the fuck up with the hate speech and whining about how Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity, and simply treating other human beings with respect, is so inconvenient for their chosen lifestyles of bible thumping, bigotry, insurrection, and hatred, to finally apologize for being such bullying sociopathic jackasses, and beg their make-believe gods and the rest of actual humanity for forgiveness.
IBM Issues an Apology for Firing a Transgender Woman
https://www.computer.org/publications/tech-news/events/ibm-a...
IBM Apologizes For Firing Computer Pioneer For Being Transgender...52 Years Later
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeremyalicandri/2020/11/18/ibm-...
This HR Executive of the Year is Transforming IBM
https://hrexecutive.com/this-hr-executive-of-the-year-is-tra...
52 Years Later, IBM Apologizes for Firing Transgender Woman
Lynn Conway was one of the company’s most promising young computer engineers but after confiding to supervisors that she was transgender, they fired her.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/21/business/lynn-conway-ibm-...
Column: IBM apologizes for firing a transgender pioneer, 52 years late
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2020-11-23/ibm-apolog...
IBM fired U-M professor Lynn Conway for coming out as trans in 1968. 52 years later, the company apologized
https://michigan.it.umich.edu/news/2020/12/02/ibm-fired-u-m-...
IBM fired U-M professor Lynn Conway for coming out as trans in 1968. 52 years later, the company apologized
At the University of Michigan’s 2018 Winter Commencement, Lynn Conway, professor emerita of electrical engineering and computer science, encouraged the graduating class to embrace changes and transitions as an inevitable part of their future adventures.
https://www.michigandaily.com/news/academics/ibm-fired-u-m-p...
Re: Lynn Conway's Story (2000)
#13https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31758139 Lynn Conway, co-author along with Carver Mead of "the textbook" on VLSI design, "Introduction to VLSI Systems", created and taught this historic VLSI Design Course in 1978, which was the first time students designed and fabricated their own integrated circuits: >"Importantly, these weren’t just any designs, for many pushed the envelope of system architecture. Jim Clark, f…
A shout-out and thank-you to the transphobes who downvoted this without replying and explaining why they hate trans people so much, proving my point that they know they're wrong and don't have a leg to stand on to justify their bigotry, because their arguments and justifications for their hatred won't withstand scrutiny. If I've convinced them to finally shut the fuck up and instead just silently downvote in shame without commenting, then at least that's a step in the right direction.
Re: Lynn Conway's Story (2000)
#14Reading this literally kept me alive a few times, half a lifetime ago.
Re: Lynn Conway's Story (2000)
#15https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31758139 Lynn Conway, co-author along with Carver Mead of "the textbook" on VLSI design, "Introduction to VLSI Systems", created and taught this historic VLSI Design Course in 1978, which was the first time students designed and fabricated their own integrated circuits: >"Importantly, these weren’t just any designs, for many pushed the envelope of system architecture. Jim Clark, f…
A shout-out and thank-you to the transphobes who downvoted this without replying and explaining why they hate trans people so much, proving my point that they know they're wrong and don't have a leg to stand on to justify their bigotry, because their arguments and justifications for their hatred won't withstand scrutiny. If I've convinced them to finally shut the fuck up and instead just silently downvote in shame wi…
I didn't downvote, but your original comment is (to me at least) an unreadable, massive wall of links and quotes, that's hard to scan visually for a hint of its content, taking up unusually many screen-fuls on my mobile client.
This is only conjecture, but maybe some people who downvoted wanted to signal that they would have preferred a contribution that is more inviting and accessible to the reader.
Re: Lynn Conway's Story (2000)
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
A shout-out and thank-you to the transphobes who downvoted this without replying and explaining why they hate trans people so much, proving my point that they know they're wrong and don't have a leg to stand on to justify their bigotry, because their arguments and justifications for their hatred won't withstand scrutiny. If I've convinced them to finally shut the fuck up and instead just silently downvote in shame wi…
I didn't downvote, but your original comment is (to me at least) an unreadable, massive wall of links and quotes, that's hard to scan visually for a hint of its content, taking up unusually many screen-fuls on my mobile client. This is only conjecture, but maybe some people who downvoted wanted to signal that they would have preferred a contribution that is more inviting and accessible to the reader.
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Re: Lynn Conway's Story (2000)
#17> At the same time, Lynn was dismayed that transsexual women are still treated so inhumanely by parents, relatives, employers, the legal system and society at large. The total rejection of teenage transgender and transsexual girls-to-be by their families is especially tragic, since it often happens just as they first cry out for help, and can doom them to years of marginalized existence.
In addition to intolerant families and workplaces, transgender people still face a Kafkaesque battle to change their legal names to one which doesn't cause dysphoria on every interaction with government, financial, and healthcare institutions (in the US, it requires deadname-filled forms with conflicting instructions to obtain a court order and change your birth certificate, passport, social security database, and ID/license, followed by bringing these documents to banking, medical, and insurance providers), difficulties accessing medical care (in some states, even bigots creating laws specifically to deny them treatment), some doctors following outdated or inaccurate practices resulting in ineffective treatment or dangerous side effects (blood clots or prolactinoma), and increased unemployment rates (for one reason or another). I hope things get better, for the sake of my own survival and future.
Re: Lynn Conway's Story (2000)
#18I read her whole retrospective last summer and it was the story that made me feel like I not only had a place as a trans woman in science, but could be ambitious as well!
Retrospective: https://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/RetrospectiveT.html
It also so charming to see other trans people here on hacker news celebrating Lynn Conway. I didn't know there were so many of us here!
Re: Lynn Conway's Story (2000)
#19Reading this literally kept me alive a few times, half a lifetime ago.
It kept me alive too. Lynn's website helped me see that I was not a freak and that I could grow into someone who is happy and successful. I'm now quite the trailblazer in my own field too.
Lynn's tireless efforts to carve a path forward for inclusion and acceptance, despite the thorny thickets of bigotry and transphobia, allow us to walk in her footsteps.
"If you want to change the future, start living as if you're already there" – Lynn Conway
Re: Lynn Conway's Story (2000)
#20Sophie Wilson, the designer of the ARM architecture, is also a trans woman.