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Voice was watching the recent launch of the CRS-19 mission to resupply the ISS. He was perturbed by the constant use of "it" as in the phrase, "it's getting ready to start up the main engines". Even a mouse would rate a "he" or "she", so how about a little respect for this short-lived but relatively
intelligent glorious flying object? Something with a little more gravitas than "it"?
We need a new pronoun. (and Voice does not say this lightly, it will probably be the only time in his life he utters that sentence without irony.) The phonics Chi, Chim, Chem(soft ch) and Cheir are relatively only lightly used and would serve as a more respectful term of address for machines which make complex decisions on their own and carry out those decisions.
CRS-19 mission to resupply the ISS
https://www.youtube...watch?v=-aoAGdYXp_4
Carrying beer and fire [Voice, Dec 08 2019]
So, will this be the theme song of the revolution ?
https://www.youtube...watch?v=kG6O4N3wxf8
or will Mary Poppins be banned for "hate speech" [FlyingToaster, Dec 12 2019]
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What's wrong with the first person plural ? We find it entirely satisfactory. |
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The idea is, however, not without merit. |
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One thing I've noticed is that a _lot_ of recently-written
science fiction has additional genders with corresponding
pronouns, possessives etc. I try to get along with it, but it's
just irritating because they're such often-used words. I end
up mentally substituting "he" or "she". |
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I dare say that sooner or later, if the current gender-fluidity
thing isn't just a fad, society will evolve a new vocabulary*.
But doing it convincingly in fiction intended to be read
today just doesn't work. |
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(*The alternative, perhaps, is that once people have ditched
gender stereotypes, they'll be less insistent on having a
different pronoun for every situation, and each person will
just decide they're OK with 'he' or 'she'.) |
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[Voice] has however raised an interesting point. Primitive languages such as french have only two genders, and inanimate objects are assigned a notional gender at random. English and German have three genders. Some languages dispose with pronouns altogether, and decline nouns instead. |
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A "null" (as opposed to neuter) gender would be a useful modification. |
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Possibly so. But my main point was that it's very difficult to
get it started without its appearing contrived. |
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I work with a lot of Malaysians. The commonest error they
make when speaking English (and most of them do so very
well) is to confuse he/she, him/her etc. Turns out that
Malay is largely gender-neutral, which probably makes
things simpler. English is also often used gender-neutrally
(for instance, "he/him" is the default in many situations,
such as contracts), but because the words used are also
applicable to one gender specifically, it isn't always
interpreted as being gender-neutral. |
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A lot of dialects of English use they / them / their as third person singlular neutral. |
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//What's wrong with the first person plural ?// - - just as 'interesting' an affectation as talking about yourself in the third person.
[marked-for-deletion] word invention |
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One of the first halfbaked ideas I posted was for a
shipyard refit scheme to enable ships to convert
their gender from female to male. It was called
"She sails in, he sails out". My ship sank under the
weight of bones it attracted. The halfbakery was
very active and rigorous in those days..... |
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No, it's just that - like everyone else - halfbakers took an instant dislike to you (because it saves time). |
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Popularity contests are for the unpopular.... that's why you've been here for decades. Now get back to counting those termites, or you'll be put on the sand diet again. |
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We haven't finished checking the millipede yet ... |
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Quickest way is to count the number of feet and divide by 1. |
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<sigh> I remember when pronouns were for our
convenience. |
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// a shipyard refit scheme to enable ships to convert their
gender from female to male // |
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That reminds me that Simone Giertz once told me* that
icebreakers are allowed to be masculine ships, in Sweden,
and that's why her houseboat was masculine. Something
about icebreaking being a manly thing to do. |
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*She'll tell you, too, if you watch the right video on YouTube |
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Well, that makes sense. To ensure the preservation of the
species, you really only need a small minority of male ships. |
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... so you build a lot but, at a certain time of year, they start
ramming and sinking one another. The alpha boat always
carries a few dents from these encounters, and can often warn
off rivals with the sound of his foghorn alone. |
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What's the gestation period of a ro-ro? |
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whatever it is, it's gotta roll off the tongue as easily as "his", "hers", etc. |
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Oh, and <link> of course. |
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The idea itself has merit but the title led me to
expect something involving Dick Van Dyke and Mary
Poppins. |
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Dick van Dyke's outrageously bad cockney accent is a blatant insult to the entire population of East London ... |
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... for which we are truly thankful. |
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AIs self-define. Where's the problem ? They may not even recognize it as an issue. |
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//humans who try to anthropomorphize machines// |
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I am fully successful at it! I don't just "try". |
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// The problem is with people. // |
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Definitely the slow class ... yes, we've been telling you for years, and have you listened ? No, you haven't. Except perhaps [bhumpreys] [marked-for-Assimilation] and [MB]'s siblings, who don't count as they're not actually human in the accepted sense of the word. No human can consume that much volatile hydrocarbon at a sitting and live. |
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Says the hegemonizing smarm who demolished most of a
bottle of Sturton's specially imported Panamanian Schnapps
without so much as a word. Admittedly it does make talking
difficult, but still. |
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Actually, hang on. I've had a brilliant idea. |
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Instead of agonizing over whether to call someone "him",
"her", "it" or "chim", how about just calling them "Toby" (or
Janet, or Spot, or whatever). |
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In other words, do away completely with personal pronouns
and replace them with actual names. If you don't know their
name, you can always ask, or replace it with "Um." |
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Or, perhaps simpler, just use "Um" as a universal pronoun. |
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// most of a bottle of Sturton's specially imported Panamanian Schnapps without so much as a word. // |
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The ingratitude... you complained that the brakes were spongy, and then when we bleed them and top up the reservoir, you're too mean to pay for a litre of DOT3 ... |
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We had to improvise. You can't say we didn't fix the problem, because we did. |
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