African American Women Worked as Some of NASA's First Computers | Hacker News Reader

African American Women Worked as Some of NASA's First Computers

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93 pointsrhizome3160 comments

One of my undergrad math teachers once held a job as a computer. She liked to tell the story of how she once spent about a week solving a complex integral. The answer turned out to be 1. She said she felt both elated and kind of disappointed.

This is basically the plot of an Iain M. Banks novel. (Spoilers.)

I've read that novel. I think your comment, while clever, and admittedly a little oblique, is still a major spoiler.

Why would you write 'spoilers' after your comment? Its probably better to say nothing. Would you consider editing?

You can't give a "maybe don't read this" spoiler warning without saying what it could spoil. This is more of a "don't ask what book".

I don't understand how people continue to expect that it is nearly their right to not be spoiled about every book, movie, and so on. You're on the internet, on a website with public comments. If it is such a big deal to not be spoiled about an old book you probably weren't even going to read, then maybe you should reconsider your browsing habits.

Pardon me, do you understand what "spoiler" means?

It's a biased and charged term. Anticipating a plot-point does not necessarily ruin the pleasure of experiencing the work — most of the enjoyment comes from the artistry of manufacture (the prose, the cinematography) than discovering the eventual outcome. Nobody who ever went to an art gallery complains about photographs of the works in the catalogue ‘spoiling’ the paintings.

Depends on who you are. The element of surprise is a huge part of works, esp horror or suspense movies. Eliminating the surprise leaves out a big chunk of the experience.

In what way is anybody ever ‘surprised’ by a horror movie's relatable narrative (as opposed to those entirely circumstantial moments that “make you jump” and that — significantly — you cannot really express)?

I'm not sure you'd get it if you haven't experienced it up to this point. Maybe just how your mind works.

I know some people walk into a movie consciously or unconsciously determined to not be surprised. They're usually disappointed to varying degrees or at least not surprised by many things. Best way to experience those movies is mentally go with the illusion for at least the duration of the movie rather than try to outsmart the director. I mean, common tropes you'll see coming anyway but one gets more out of it overall.

> Anticipating a plot-point does not necessarily ruin the pleasure of experiencing the work

No, actually, it does significantly decrease the pleasure of the work for me. I get the most enjoyment from narrative work the first time through, when everything is a surprise, and if it's been spoiled I never get that experience, and my enjoyment is considerably muted.

So are you asserting that I'm a liar, or that I'm somehow confused about the inputs and outputs of my own mind, or...what? I'd honestly like to know; this is not the first time someone has told me that I'm not qualified to describe my own emotional experiences, and I do not understand it.

At best you're not allowed to call it a ‘spoiler’ but a ‘for-me-spoiler’ (‘me’ being you).

There are smart people of both sexes and all races, and I always assumed that an organization as focused on problem solving as NASA would employ the smartest people and ignore the discrimination that was all too commonplace at the time this occurred. While I'm glad to see that my assumption was grounded in facts, articles like this, in 2016, seem divisive to me.

Neil deGrasse Tyson will not answer any questions about his race for this reason.

It would certainly be hoped, but NASA was run by fallible human beings.

> articles like this, in 2016, seem divisive to me.

I dunno, this seems kinda like the "racism is over" argument. As long as there are many, many people who (consciously or unconsciously) believe that nothing of value was ever accomplished by a non-white non-male, there's value in pointing out that they're wrong.

>"As long as there are many, many people who (consciously or unconsciously) believe that nothing of value was ever accomplished by a non-white non-male"

Nothing good will come of trying to forcefully change those peoples' minds. Because such actions are incredibly divisive, even if you sugar-coat it with noble ideals.

An article on the internet is "trying to change someone's mind by force"?

No, but an article will hardly change my opinion on black people.

The old expression about bringing a horse to water comes to mind. Doing divisive things that constantly beat the war-drum of past wrongs is "physically" forcing the horse to drink. Living peacefully and treating everyone around you equally (including those with views you disagree with) is akin to bringing them to the water and drinking it next to them.

Your use of the word "force" when talking about race is an odd choice when we consider the huge amounts of force coming from the other side - the armed militarised police who seem to want to escalate every confrontation; the lynchings; the red lining; the jim crow laws; the terrorist racist groups who firebomb churches; the "lone wolf" extremists who murder people.

"someone wrote a blog post" seems pretty mild in response.

It is an appropriate choice of word in the context of my post regarding changing peoples' attitude towards race, and their prejudices.

So mentioning that black women accomplished cool stuff one time is "beating the war drum of past wrongs" and "trying to forcefully change peoples' minds"?

Basically, you're saying we should cover up any history that might make people uncomfortable?

Any organization where bosses care about results will discriminate far less than others. I am not surprised about NASA because you either send a rocket to moon or you do not. But local DMV office might discriminant without impunity.

But given the smartness thing, it turns out that IQ varies a lot by race. African Americans are the only race where IQ of women is on an average far better than man. (I don't vouch for the science here, I come from a country without concept of race and hence cant read racist context in academic articles).

> I come from a country without concept of race

I apologize for being nosy, but what country is that?

> While I'm glad to see that my assumption was grounded in facts

Sadly, you're wrong. For years the route to become a NASA astronaut included being a military test pilot. That position was not available to women, and so NASA prevented women from becoming astronauts.

They continued to do so even when testing showed that women were at least as good as men, and often better, and had other advantages. (Smaller, and thus lighter, and thus considerably less expensive to send into space).

http://history.nasa.gov/printFriendly/flats.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_13

I was just referring to the article. Apparently the "computer" position was open to the best applicants, regardless of sex or race. You know, the way things are supposed to be.

Some would say calling an article that highlights history and achievements of an underrepresented group "divisive" is an example of unintended systemic racism.

Pretty cool. They used to have a position at NASA whose job title was "computer", which was typically filled by women. They would compute whatever was necessary, and invent any tools they needed to make those computations.

The term dates back to the 17th century: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=computer

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