Lynn Conway, who died Sunday at 85, was a leader in the development of personal computers and microprocessor technology, and a symbol for generations of transgender individuals.

I have mixed feelings on the pronoun use, but having read some of her autobiographical writing I don’t think she would have taken much issue with it. This piece is more focused on her work in computer engineering, so I felt it was appropriate to post here.

  • mke@lemmy.worldEnglish
    121·
    6 months ago

    I won’t know if any of the linked resources are any good until I have time to look them over, but if nothing else I appreciate you taking the time to answer.

    Re: whitewashing, fair point. I’d already read about the issue, but maybe I still need to rethink how I look at computing history.

    • thesmokingmanEnglish
      81·
      6 months ago

      If you’ve read stuff like Hackers by Levy or Where Wizards Stay Up Late by Hafner, there’s a very happy, “look at this cool shit we built” attitude to everything (both books are fantastic and worth the read). Levy’s Crypto begins to dance around some of the dangers when he writes about Diffie-Hellman. MIT AI especially has its roots in this gnarly defense world even though it’s usually portrayed as anything but. The amount of computing used for RAND to support the war in Vietnam is terrible.