Two Worlds Collide
Today, while in a conversation with jhybeturtle, she said something that turned my world upside down: (to paraphrase) Maria Suarez, during her presentation at the recently convened KnowHow Conference in Mexico, assessed Michio Kaku's work from a Feminist perspective (in relation to her own paper that has something really funky to do with the Butterfly Effect, women and physics) and was not impressed. She was talking about Kaku's robot thingie (the turtle was vague) and said that Kaku's vision of the future was that of a robot in the shape of a woman who was programmed to serve. In other words, his perception of the future was sexist and biased against women.
I swear, my heart stopped.
Michio Kaku. The Michio Kaku. The man I would sell my soul to be reincarnated as. The man who wrote the best books on quantum mechanics in the last decade. One of the physicist who came up with the string field theory. The man who made me fall in love with theoretical physics all over again -- a sexist?!?
And then there's Maria Suarez. Uber super cool Feminist to the Nth degree. I first met her during the Beijing+5 Conferences -- I was bug and she was a star and she was fabulous and amazing. The work that she has done with FIRE, using community radio and open source to raise awareness on critical women's issues, is the dream initiative for any Feminist who wants to use tech meaningfully.
And now this woman I've admired for so long has just dissed My Michio Kaku. It stalls my heart and blows my mind.
I need to think about this. I need to re-read every Kaku book (I think I have all of them) from a Feminist perspective. I need to figure out if quantum mechanics can be sexist -- and to understand quantum mechanics from a Feminist perspective. The thing is, I've been pursuing quantum mechanics (and Michio Kaku) with suspended disbelief. I have been merely a sponge who takes in what the Kakus and the Lightmans of the world say, aww-ing and ah-ing about their absolute brilliance and brains (yeah and a bit green around the edges because they've been able to pursue what I can only fantasise about -- yes I fantasise about being a physicist, soy un perdido).
In the same vein, I've been a bug to the Maria Suarezes of the world, marvelling at their interpretations of Feminism and dreaming about being a fully-evolved Feminist when I grow up. I need to define my own Feminism as well -- this time with quantum theory as the backdrop. Not to pit one against the other, of course, but to find out where one begins and the other ends. Where they intersect and where the intersections are forced and artificial.
Time to put down the comic books and the Suduko puzzles and dive into this thing.
I'll be back.
I swear, my heart stopped.
Michio Kaku. The Michio Kaku. The man I would sell my soul to be reincarnated as. The man who wrote the best books on quantum mechanics in the last decade. One of the physicist who came up with the string field theory. The man who made me fall in love with theoretical physics all over again -- a sexist?!?
And then there's Maria Suarez. Uber super cool Feminist to the Nth degree. I first met her during the Beijing+5 Conferences -- I was bug and she was a star and she was fabulous and amazing. The work that she has done with FIRE, using community radio and open source to raise awareness on critical women's issues, is the dream initiative for any Feminist who wants to use tech meaningfully.
And now this woman I've admired for so long has just dissed My Michio Kaku. It stalls my heart and blows my mind.
I need to think about this. I need to re-read every Kaku book (I think I have all of them) from a Feminist perspective. I need to figure out if quantum mechanics can be sexist -- and to understand quantum mechanics from a Feminist perspective. The thing is, I've been pursuing quantum mechanics (and Michio Kaku) with suspended disbelief. I have been merely a sponge who takes in what the Kakus and the Lightmans of the world say, aww-ing and ah-ing about their absolute brilliance and brains (yeah and a bit green around the edges because they've been able to pursue what I can only fantasise about -- yes I fantasise about being a physicist, soy un perdido).
In the same vein, I've been a bug to the Maria Suarezes of the world, marvelling at their interpretations of Feminism and dreaming about being a fully-evolved Feminist when I grow up. I need to define my own Feminism as well -- this time with quantum theory as the backdrop. Not to pit one against the other, of course, but to find out where one begins and the other ends. Where they intersect and where the intersections are forced and artificial.
Time to put down the comic books and the Suduko puzzles and dive into this thing.
I'll be back.