Hello, I am Emisha Ravani, Writing this blog for the cyber feminism which is assigned by Barad sir.
What is cyber- feminism?
Cyberfeminism is a postmodernist keyword used to describe the philosophies of a contemporary feminist community whose interests are cyberspace, the Internet, and technology. The term was coined in 1991 by Sadie Plant to describe the work of feminists interested in theorizing, critiquing, and exploiting the Internet, cyberspace, and new-media technologies in general. Cyberfeminism is considered a predecessor to networked feminism. The dominant Cyberfeminist perspective takes a utopian view of cyberspace and the Internet as a means of freedom from social constructs like gender and sex difference. Cyberfeminism views technology as a vehicle for the dissolution of sex and gender as well as a means to link the body with machines.
Neither male (physically) nor female (genetically) nor their simple reversal, but something else: a virtual sex. floating in an elliptical orbit around the planet of geode~ that it has left behind, finally free of the powerful gravitational pull of the binary signs Of the male/female antinomies in the crowded earth scene of gender. A virtual sex that is not limited to gays aild lesbians but which is open to members of the heterosexual club as well and one that privileges sexual reconciliation rather than sexual victimization. -Kraker & Kraker
What do cyber- feminists do?
The work of feminists interested in theorizing, critiquing, exploring and re-making the Internet, cyberspace and new-media technologies in general. We are in a world where people are judged, selected and selected based on their skin color, gender, background, past, body etc. so there is a hope that if AI will increase this bias will be strike out. But yet we find that AI is resulting or working differently based on gender, skin color etc. But if critics have to work on remaking technology then definitely there is some problem.
The term cyberfeminism was coined by VNS Matrix (read Venus Matrix), in 1980s by an Australian artist collective active between 1991 and 1997, who, inspired by Donna Haraway's A Cyborg Manifesto. This manifesto gave a concept that the internet is a revolutionary tool to overthrow patriarchy, destroy the existing gender binary and said internet to be a neutral place women need and needs to be shaped by women in a way that will allow them to overthrow the existing social order.
Bruce Grenville in The Uncanny: Experiments in Cyborg Culture mentions: "The dominant cyber- feminist perspective takes a utopia view of cyberspace and the Internet as a means of freedom from social constructs such as gender, sex difference and race. For instance, a description of the concept described it as a struggle to be aware of the impact of new technologies on the lives of women as well as the so-called insidious gendering of techno culture in everyday life."
But, the virtual world is nothing but a mirror of the real world. We somehow and somewhere experience AI is not a fresh start for this world or society. However it is designed by humans not intentionally but the unconscious human biases are also transferred to AI, technology. How do AI learn? Technology or AI works based on a dataset and this dataset is prepared by humans. Probably it is not intentional but transferring our biases to AI is like creating or designing or transferring same discriminate future world. We know that majorly algorithms and dataset for AI are prepared by ‘white men’. White thinking of them as superior has always been a top of the talk. While setting a dataset AI comes across more number of white and men. The Mindset of white men itself is transferred to AI.
Algorithms play an important role in making decisions. The Social Dilemma is a 2020 documentary which describes how algorithms work and the same happens in this case too. AI works on algorithms. The Internet through our surfing gives us more and more similar data. Alongside, they ask for our gender while making our account on any platform. This selection of gender itself is questionable. What is the need of knowing gender? Then later girls and boys are catered differently. If you are a woman you must be definitely getting fertility clinic ads, how to be a mother, IVF clinic etc.
Thank you!
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