Conversation

Notices

1. Embed this notice
   Trick Jarrett (trick@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 16-Feb-2024 04:31:27 JST Trick Jarrett

   in reply to

   • Clive Thompson
   • Jenni Halpin

   @clive @Halpin Hidden Figures is amazing and highlights this.

   https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4846340/

   • clacke likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     Clive Thompson (clive@saturation.social)'s status on Friday, 16-Feb-2024 04:31:28 JST Clive Thompson

     • Jenni Halpin

     In the days before digital computers, "computers" were human (as @Halpin just noted in a convo with me)

     People doing calculations by hand

     A large chunk of these human computers were women

     Indeed, so *many* were women that ...

     "... one contractor of the Applied Mathematics Panel used the term 'kilo­girl' to refer to 1,000 hours of female calculation work. Another astronomer spoke of 'girl-years' of work."

     I wrote about this for Smithsonian magazine a few years ago: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/history-human-computers-180972202/

     clacke likes this.