An amazing article that I recently read (from which I got the title of this post) that speaks to so many issues about science and who gets to participate. I encourage you to give it a read. Although diversity issues in futurism are not directly connected to language use in science (that I normally write about), I feel like there is a lot of symmetry between the two.
This article explains why there are not very many women futurists, and why the ones that there are are not interested by much of what the white men are talking about. The men futurists are very much science fiction types, coming up with ideas that sound cool but often completely ignore the lives and struggles of so many people. I tweeted a few key sections when I read it, you can find that here.
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about diversity in science and how non-English speakers hardly have any voice at all in the conversation, and how that can lead to science focusing on some things that only suit those in charge and not anyone else despite being supposedly universal. And then this article came along. I’m interested to know what you think about it. Do you think it is as bad as the author makes out? Do you think science is looking at the wrong things, missing critical topics because of the people directing it?
Words apart 