Kevin comments on That Magical Click - Less Wrong

58 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 20 January 2010 04:35PM

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Comment author: Kevin 22 January 2010 01:30:13PM *  5 points [-]

This is a great post, and I'd be interested in seeing you write out a fuller version of what you said to your relative as a top level post, something like "Friendly AI and the Singularity explained for adolescents."

Also, do you speak English as a second language? If so, I am especially impressed with your writing ability.

On a tangent, am I the only one that doesn't like the usage of boy, girl, or child to describe adolescents? It seems demeaning, because adolescents are not biologically children, they've just been defined to be children by the state. I suppose I'm never going to overturn that usage, but I'd like to know if there is some reason why I shouldn't be bothered by the common usage of the words for children.

Comment author: Kutta 22 January 2010 03:41:40PM *  7 points [-]

Yes, English is second language for me and I mostly learned it via reading things on the Internet.

Excuse me for the boy/guy confusion, I did not have any particular intent behind the wording. It was an unconscious application of my native language's tendency to refer to <18 year old males with the "boy" equivalent word. As I'm mostly a lurker I have much less writing than reading experience; currently I usually make dozens of spelling/formulation corrections on longer posts, but some weirdly used words or mistakes are guaranteed to remain in the text.

Comment author: Kevin 22 January 2010 07:55:51PM 2 points [-]

The boy usage is correct in English as well; I just don't like that usage, but I'm out of the mainstream.

Comment author: AdeleneDawner 22 January 2010 02:16:26PM 1 point [-]

On a tangent, am I the only one that doesn't like the usage of boy, girl, or child to describe adolescents?

You're not. I find it demeaning and more than a little confusing.

Comment author: pdf23ds 22 January 2010 02:29:30PM *  2 points [-]

"Child" is probably never OK for people older than 12-13, but "girl", "guy", and occasionally "boy" are usually used by teens, and often by 20-somethings to describe themselves or each other. ("Boy" usually by females, used with a sexual connotation.)

Comment author: AdeleneDawner 22 January 2010 02:34:28PM *  3 points [-]

I'm aware of it, and am actually still getting into the habit of referring to women about my age or younger as women rather than girls. I still trip over it when other people use the words that way, though - I automatically think of 8-year-olds if it's not very clear who's being referred to.

Comment author: pdf23ds 22 January 2010 03:10:29PM 3 points [-]

I automatically think of 8-year-olds if it's not very clear who's being referred to.

Right. "Girl" really has at least two distinct senses, one for children and one for peers/juniors of many ages. "Guy" isn't used in the first sense, and the second sense of "boy" is more restricted. The first sense of "boy"/"girl" is the most salient one, and thus the default absent further context. I don't think the first sense needs to poison the second one. But its use in the parent comment this discussion wasn't all that innocent. (I've been attacked before, by a rather extreme feminist, for using it innocently.)