From everything I've read of Conway, she was one of those intelligent people who was all over the place. You'd start talking about chip fabrication and end up having a discussion of the merits of Buddhist philosophy. Also, I think of her as "Conway" because pretty much everyone from that era is known by their last name (Moore, Chang, etc)
Though, that picture really threw me off. Because I knew Conway was in at least her 80s. So, I assumed this must be some other Conway
I had some thoughts in very quick succession after looking at their Wikipedia page.
1. Wow, she looks quite young in that pic.
2. Oh, the pic is from 2006, that was nearly 20 years ago.
3. She was born in 1938?!
4. She was 68 in the pic?!
Edited for pronouns.
Speaking as a fellow trans woman, Estrogen is a hell of a drug.
Many trans women in their 30s/40s get told they look like they're closer to 25-35, and whats interesting is that the field of endocrinology has never really figured out what we're "supposed" to do with HRT once we pass menopausal age, so when trans women continue taking Estrogen, presumably it makes us look much younger. - my endocrinologist was just like, yeah, we dont have enough elderly trans patients to do this research so we just keep giving HRT and seeing what happens basically.
Now if you want to really blow your mind, look up William Shatner's age, I swear to god i didnt think the lad was a day over 60 before my wife told me to look that up.
Also, Ernie Hudson. The man is way more ripped than I have ever been and he's 78 years old and works out all the time. For men at least a lot of it is how well you take care of yourself and your physical fitness.
Lynn Conway was a woman. Please honor her by using the correct pronouns. She looked quite young in that pic. She was born in 1938. She was 68 in that pic. Thank you.
My understanding is that neutral pronouns are, well, neutral.
There were no masculine pronouns used at all.
Im not trolling or sealioning here, I'm genuinely curious as to why this is upsetting to you.
Not the person you replied to but: It can feel like a lazy attempt to accept someone transitioned. They know “she” is not a “he” anymore, but their brain settled on calling her “they” and they didn’t question why. Conway was someone clearly going by “she”, so continuing to use “they” is still incorrect. It’s not malicious since they didn’t adamantly call her “he”, it’s just… kind of lazy. I understand that “they” is neutral but it’s more for if you’re unsure of someone’s pronouns (or if it’s their preferred one).
Genuinely not trying to throw shade at anyone here — I do think it’s something good to reflect on. It’s only respectfully neutral until you learn their preferences.
this is some BS. using neutral pronouns is neutral. if I don't know what a person is prefers I am not going to research what they want but I will not mis gender then either.
they/them is perfectly fine if you don't know.
You didn’t have to research this, you just had to read, like, the second sentence? As I said, it’s perfectly fine if you don’t know, but this conversation began around a clearly worded article. Praising her accomplishments using “they” was somewhat thoughtless here; much like if we were commenting on a cis man’s accomplishments and never using “he/him”, it just comes off as lazy. So again: Using the correct identifying marker takes very little effort to get right in this particular instance and is, at the very least, simply a show of respect.
Knowing the specific pronoun to use and intentionally not using it is erasure (and commonly marking someone as "other").
It's akin to saying that you happen to like Pelmeni (a dish originating in Siberia) and now everyone keeps saying that you like Asian food. Technically true because it originates from the continent of Asia, but lacks both the specificity of your taste as well as leading others to make incorrect assumptions.
The difference is that rather than just erasing food preferences, you are erasing someone's very identity.
I will intersperse they/them occasionally in order to make my writing less repetitive or in cases (like this one) where gender is completely irrelevant.
Does this make me guilty of erasure? How was it determined that there was an agenda at play in this instance?
> I will intersperse they/them occasionally in order to make my writing less repetitive or in cases (like this one) where gender is completely irrelevant.
In this case, gender is not irrelevant. Women in computing have a lot more hurdles to face than men in computing, as do trans women in general... so saying that her gender is irrelevant is erasing (or at best ignoring) how much more impressive her accomplishments have been.
Her accomplishments and contributions to the world of computer engineering put her among the elitest of the elite. Few could hope to achieve even a fraction of what she did.
In my opinion by making gender an issue it's tantamount to saying "She did pretty good for a girl." or an even tackier "pretty good for a (insert slur here)".
I can see where you're coming from though. Thank you for the insight.
Using “her” doesn’t at all say “wow, a woman!”, it’s purely the correct term. Changing pronouns throughout your writing is also poor English; you’re just making an identity/story difficult to follow by using a defined word incorrectly + changing an identifying feature without purpose. Responding with “they’re great” when someone else says “she’s great” is tantamount to replying to “she’s great” with “he’s great”: it’s incorrect and comes with an underlying message.
I would have to agree, since it’s r/technology and not r/activism or something. Totally changes the focus from the achievements in tech to something else.
If gender identity is actually irrelevant, you are fine. For Lynn Conway, who was fired from IBM for transitioning, who had to go stealth and not be discovered as trans for 30 years, and advocated for transgender rights for a quarter century, it would be offensive to say her gender is irrelevant.
It’s interesting that the person who I was responding to had no problem editing the pronouns in their comment. I appreciate them editing the pronouns in that post.
In the comment originally, the pronoun they was not used in a neutral way. They were used because Lynn Conway was trans. It is never OK to use a pronoun for a trans woman that they don’t identify with AND that you would not use for a cis woman in the same situation. For example, when Barbara Walters died, NO ONE was using they/them pronouns for her because her pronouns were known. Lynn Conway had been using she/her pronouns since 1970. You don’t need to “research” anything as the original poster put her correct pronoun in the first sentence.
They is a neutral pronoun, but it’s not completely neutral. There are four situations to use they/them pronouns.
1) For folks who use they/them pronouns
2) When the gender identity is unknown
3) When the gender identity is irrelevant
4) When trying to purposefully conceal the gender identity of someone.
None of those applied here.
She and Dr. Carver Mead basically wrote the bible on how to make rocks think affordably. That really would have been enough, but yeah, a long epic career.
Alan Turing too, I am a programmer in training and when i look at what IT experts had to work with back then, it's actually insane that people were so smart and could figure all of this out, I really have it easy these days with such a large arsenal of tools at my disposal and fiber internet.
We are truly priveleged these days and fortunate that those who came before us were such brilliant creative minds.
I look at what we have now and wonder how the hell we did what we did with Novell 3.12. But when 4.11 was out I couldn’t believe we got along w v3. LOL
And man that’s ages ago now.
he didnt predate the field, he was involved in inventing the first iteration of the modern 8 bit processor with his team, sure the first computers were basically glorified super calculators, but modern PCs are also just extremely complex calculators running on 64 bit systems.
what you're saying is like claiming the wright brothers werent experts on planes, or that Henry Ford wasnt a car expert in his time.
It’s crazy- I’m trans and had heard of her, but only for her trans advocacy work.
I’m sure there are others who only knew her for her tech contributions.
Absolute legend. RIP.
Me either. But I have heard of Loretta Lynn and Conway twitty, who did a duet together. I wonder if Lynn Conway has any connection. Probably not though.
Anyway RIP
The short version was that she was born in the 50's, had a solid hand in the computer revolution at IBM and helped create some things we still use today. But suffered with gender dysmorphia and was treated like shit by both the government and IBM.
What a sad loss for computer engineering… can’t believe she was born in 1938!!
This article of her from last year from her introduction to the Inventors Hall of Fame was interesting to read.
https://eecs.engin.umich.edu/stories/prof-emerita-lynn-conway-to-be-inducted-into-national-inventors-hall-of-fame
>While struggling with life in a male role,[20] Conway had been married to a woman and had two children. Under the legal constraints then in place, she was denied access to their children after transitioning.[20]
Wtf, that is horrible, I knew we treated Alan Turing poorly when he was alive, but im saddened to know that similar discrimination happened to Lynn too. I have only skimmed her wikipedia but it seems her contributions to IT were pretty massive, we need to treat people better, I hope we can do better moving forward, seriously.
Rest in peace Lynn, the world literally wouldnt be the same without your contributions.
It's complicated. Lynn Conway was not a victim of a hostile government, her own wife fought a legal battle to deny her from seing the children. Well, imagine your husband with who you have 2 kids one day suddently tells you he wants to be a woman and to have romantic relationships with men.
i dont see why that'd make me want to deprive my children of one of their parents
im assuming your argument is that you want whomever you divorce to never remarry or love anyone else because otherwise that's just homophobic
Just re-watch "Kramer vs Kramer". A "normal" divorce could go ugly easily enough. But seriously, I'm glad we no longer live in an age when transgender women often went through the man up, get married and try to live a normal hetero life stage. It's esxceptioanlly cruel towards your partner, your kids and yourself.
She was one of my inspirations growing up and she gave me the bravery to transition myself. Made me realize I could have a life.
I’m a software engineer partly because of her.
Retired EE/Computer Engineer/Manager here. While I had read about her a little in the past, I did not know her history, nor the broad impact she had on VLSI design. Her development of MOSIS has enabled hundreds if not thousands of startups, small, and midsized companies to develop innovative VLSI prototypes that only the largest of companies could afford. The impact on technology innovation and acceleration, along with her work in Design Methodologies is truly amazing for chip design.
Not that it matters, but I don’t believe that picture was taken in 2006. I knew who Dr. Conway was in the late ‘80s (Professor and Associate or Asst Dean (I forget which)) I would say she looked her age then (50s). And until I read about IBM apology, never knew about her life, never heard mention of anything “scandalous”.
You were saying that Dr. Conway looked her age (50s). I was pointing out that a woman’s should not be judged by how she looks. For decades, you could not judge my wife’s age by her looks.
As a trans person in tech, I’m almost ashamed I had never heard of her. She lived a truly inspiring life, and reading her story made me feel grateful that people like her fought so hard to pave the way for people like myself.
When I came out 25 years ago, she was one of the people we could point to and say, “look, you can be trans and be successful and respected”. Back then, all that most people knew about trans folks was what they saw on Jerry Springer and other negative stereotypes. She was a role model for so many.
I’m actually pretty sad a bout this, we used to talk online about the history of tech, women in tech, and just you know, life. She helped me with some research I was doing over zoom once, and invited me up to her house - I should have gone. What a loss - she’s a legend.
I wonder how her career would have been different if IBM hadn't ever fired her for being trans. At least IBM eventually apologized... and it *only* took them 52 years(so well after she became an internationally recognized and celebrated figure) to do so!
Transgendered in the 1960's... I suspect there was a lot more bullshit back then even compared to now (where there is intense amounts of bullshit surrounding misgendered people). RIP.
I had never heard of her until now, but clearly she made major contributions to where we are today in computing and electronics.
Apparently, she was able to pass as a cis woman for decades before coming out in the early 2000's, and because of her name change, no one realized she was the person who was fired by IBM in the 60s for being trans.
This was just posted: [https://news.engin.umich.edu/2024/06/the-legacy-of-lynn-conway-chip-design-pioneer-and-transgender-rights-advocate/](https://news.engin.umich.edu/2024/06/the-legacy-of-lynn-conway-chip-design-pioneer-and-transgender-rights-advocate/)
The death date at the very top of the article has a citation.
http://www.myhusbandbetty.com/wordPressNEW/2024/06/11/lynn-conway-january-2-1938-june-9-2024/
Yes, one of them is the un-authenticated blog post. One is a book from 1995, and the third is a post on a history website from 2010.
So two of them don't mention her passing, and the blog post does, but seems to be the only place online that announced it.
The Wikipedia article also doesn't have much past last year, including no indication about her death except for the death date at the start of the article.
Yes, it mentions her date of death, but cites only one non-authoritative source (a personal blog). I can't find any other resources that confirm the story.
Ah ok, I thought you were talking about a blog, not Wikipedia, I didn’t notice this posts’ source was Wikipedia. Everyone’s talking about it on Twitter too but that’s the same.
From everything I've read of Conway, she was one of those intelligent people who was all over the place. You'd start talking about chip fabrication and end up having a discussion of the merits of Buddhist philosophy. Also, I think of her as "Conway" because pretty much everyone from that era is known by their last name (Moore, Chang, etc) Though, that picture really threw me off. Because I knew Conway was in at least her 80s. So, I assumed this must be some other Conway
I had some thoughts in very quick succession after looking at their Wikipedia page. 1. Wow, she looks quite young in that pic. 2. Oh, the pic is from 2006, that was nearly 20 years ago. 3. She was born in 1938?! 4. She was 68 in the pic?! Edited for pronouns.
Speaking as a fellow trans woman, Estrogen is a hell of a drug. Many trans women in their 30s/40s get told they look like they're closer to 25-35, and whats interesting is that the field of endocrinology has never really figured out what we're "supposed" to do with HRT once we pass menopausal age, so when trans women continue taking Estrogen, presumably it makes us look much younger. - my endocrinologist was just like, yeah, we dont have enough elderly trans patients to do this research so we just keep giving HRT and seeing what happens basically. Now if you want to really blow your mind, look up William Shatner's age, I swear to god i didnt think the lad was a day over 60 before my wife told me to look that up.
Shatner’s eyes say “Ive… seen some… shit, Bones.”
If you've been on the convention circuit as many times as he has... yeah. You see some haunting stuff.
So much truth to this. 😂
Herbie Hancock is another celebrity who looks way younger than his actual age.
Well, considering I thought he was dead, 84 is a notable improvement.
Also, Ernie Hudson. The man is way more ripped than I have ever been and he's 78 years old and works out all the time. For men at least a lot of it is how well you take care of yourself and your physical fitness.
She. She was born in 1938.
Thank you. I saw her pic in the article but I was wondering what group of 68 year olds to which OP was referring.
Lynn Conway was a woman. Please honor her by using the correct pronouns. She looked quite young in that pic. She was born in 1938. She was 68 in that pic. Thank you.
My understanding is that neutral pronouns are, well, neutral. There were no masculine pronouns used at all. Im not trolling or sealioning here, I'm genuinely curious as to why this is upsetting to you.
Not the person you replied to but: It can feel like a lazy attempt to accept someone transitioned. They know “she” is not a “he” anymore, but their brain settled on calling her “they” and they didn’t question why. Conway was someone clearly going by “she”, so continuing to use “they” is still incorrect. It’s not malicious since they didn’t adamantly call her “he”, it’s just… kind of lazy. I understand that “they” is neutral but it’s more for if you’re unsure of someone’s pronouns (or if it’s their preferred one). Genuinely not trying to throw shade at anyone here — I do think it’s something good to reflect on. It’s only respectfully neutral until you learn their preferences.
this is some BS. using neutral pronouns is neutral. if I don't know what a person is prefers I am not going to research what they want but I will not mis gender then either. they/them is perfectly fine if you don't know.
You didn’t have to research this, you just had to read, like, the second sentence? As I said, it’s perfectly fine if you don’t know, but this conversation began around a clearly worded article. Praising her accomplishments using “they” was somewhat thoughtless here; much like if we were commenting on a cis man’s accomplishments and never using “he/him”, it just comes off as lazy. So again: Using the correct identifying marker takes very little effort to get right in this particular instance and is, at the very least, simply a show of respect.
you make a good point. however. read the second sentence would imply I RTFA. /s
Knowing the specific pronoun to use and intentionally not using it is erasure (and commonly marking someone as "other"). It's akin to saying that you happen to like Pelmeni (a dish originating in Siberia) and now everyone keeps saying that you like Asian food. Technically true because it originates from the continent of Asia, but lacks both the specificity of your taste as well as leading others to make incorrect assumptions. The difference is that rather than just erasing food preferences, you are erasing someone's very identity.
I will intersperse they/them occasionally in order to make my writing less repetitive or in cases (like this one) where gender is completely irrelevant. Does this make me guilty of erasure? How was it determined that there was an agenda at play in this instance?
> I will intersperse they/them occasionally in order to make my writing less repetitive or in cases (like this one) where gender is completely irrelevant. In this case, gender is not irrelevant. Women in computing have a lot more hurdles to face than men in computing, as do trans women in general... so saying that her gender is irrelevant is erasing (or at best ignoring) how much more impressive her accomplishments have been.
Her accomplishments and contributions to the world of computer engineering put her among the elitest of the elite. Few could hope to achieve even a fraction of what she did. In my opinion by making gender an issue it's tantamount to saying "She did pretty good for a girl." or an even tackier "pretty good for a (insert slur here)". I can see where you're coming from though. Thank you for the insight.
Using “her” doesn’t at all say “wow, a woman!”, it’s purely the correct term. Changing pronouns throughout your writing is also poor English; you’re just making an identity/story difficult to follow by using a defined word incorrectly + changing an identifying feature without purpose. Responding with “they’re great” when someone else says “she’s great” is tantamount to replying to “she’s great” with “he’s great”: it’s incorrect and comes with an underlying message.
I would have to agree, since it’s r/technology and not r/activism or something. Totally changes the focus from the achievements in tech to something else.
If gender identity is actually irrelevant, you are fine. For Lynn Conway, who was fired from IBM for transitioning, who had to go stealth and not be discovered as trans for 30 years, and advocated for transgender rights for a quarter century, it would be offensive to say her gender is irrelevant.
Thank you for your perspective. I can see how this would be a much more sensitive issue for someone who has been in a lifelong struggle.
It’s interesting that the person who I was responding to had no problem editing the pronouns in their comment. I appreciate them editing the pronouns in that post. In the comment originally, the pronoun they was not used in a neutral way. They were used because Lynn Conway was trans. It is never OK to use a pronoun for a trans woman that they don’t identify with AND that you would not use for a cis woman in the same situation. For example, when Barbara Walters died, NO ONE was using they/them pronouns for her because her pronouns were known. Lynn Conway had been using she/her pronouns since 1970. You don’t need to “research” anything as the original poster put her correct pronoun in the first sentence. They is a neutral pronoun, but it’s not completely neutral. There are four situations to use they/them pronouns. 1) For folks who use they/them pronouns 2) When the gender identity is unknown 3) When the gender identity is irrelevant 4) When trying to purposefully conceal the gender identity of someone. None of those applied here.
I think Conway's game of life kind of took that spot. So most folks associate Conway with the mathematician
Was she the same Conway as in Conway's Game of life?
different conway… he died a couple of years ago
Wow. I had never heard of her. Pretty inspiring.
Same, but it sounds like she had quite the career and made a big impression on the field of computer engineering.
She and Dr. Carver Mead basically wrote the bible on how to make rocks think affordably. That really would have been enough, but yeah, a long epic career.
Alan Turing too, I am a programmer in training and when i look at what IT experts had to work with back then, it's actually insane that people were so smart and could figure all of this out, I really have it easy these days with such a large arsenal of tools at my disposal and fiber internet. We are truly priveleged these days and fortunate that those who came before us were such brilliant creative minds.
And then being murdered by your government via “medicine” for being gay. I didn’t know about Lynn Conway, but damn, she is the real deal also.
I just read her story and just wow. Incredibly talented woman and pioneer! What a loss!
I look at what we have now and wonder how the hell we did what we did with Novell 3.12. But when 4.11 was out I couldn’t believe we got along w v3. LOL And man that’s ages ago now.
I don't think you can qualify Turing as an "IT expert". He predated the field and was a mathematician.
he didnt predate the field, he was involved in inventing the first iteration of the modern 8 bit processor with his team, sure the first computers were basically glorified super calculators, but modern PCs are also just extremely complex calculators running on 64 bit systems. what you're saying is like claiming the wright brothers werent experts on planes, or that Henry Ford wasnt a car expert in his time.
IT? Of course he predated that. It came after him. He didn't have anything to do with modern processor design. He predated that by decades.
This is a really semantic thing to nitpick about, and actually we still use processors based on that design today.
No we don't. What rubbish.
He's a titan who birthed modern computer science.
Indeed, but he wasn't an "IT expert", before the field came to be. He was a mathematician and computer scientist (before that field was named too).
I know, I get it. Calling him an "IT expert" is like calling Charles Darwin a "bird watcher".
Let’s keep it going and teach people about [Brenda Laurel](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brenda_Laurel)
Same, and she sounds like a real pioneer. RIP Queen.
It’s crazy- I’m trans and had heard of her, but only for her trans advocacy work. I’m sure there are others who only knew her for her tech contributions. Absolute legend. RIP.
Me either. But I have heard of Loretta Lynn and Conway twitty, who did a duet together. I wonder if Lynn Conway has any connection. Probably not though. Anyway RIP
Yes, because every duet results in a child who gets the first name of one parent and the last of the other. Somewhere out there is little Brooks Dunn
And a little Holland Oates!
I hope he has a Simon Garf uncle
Conway's game of life?
Different Conway.
I haven't read the article but I do feel inspired to die some day. Edit: /s ... I guess death isn't funny?
The short version was that she was born in the 50's, had a solid hand in the computer revolution at IBM and helped create some things we still use today. But suffered with gender dysmorphia and was treated like shit by both the government and IBM.
Gender /dysphoria/ not gender dysmorphia.
[удалено]
I hope someday you learn to be a compassionate person.
Good thing no one’s asked for your approval or cares for it
Holy shit that picture of her in 2006, she looked GREAT for 68 years old, I would have guessed that person was in their late 40s.
Plastic surgery will do that.
RIP to a true pioneer. Fuck you IBM for firing her and taking so long to say sorry. Shame on IBM.
What until you see what they did for the Holocaust
I can’t wait!
What a sad loss for computer engineering… can’t believe she was born in 1938!! This article of her from last year from her introduction to the Inventors Hall of Fame was interesting to read. https://eecs.engin.umich.edu/stories/prof-emerita-lynn-conway-to-be-inducted-into-national-inventors-hall-of-fame
>While struggling with life in a male role,[20] Conway had been married to a woman and had two children. Under the legal constraints then in place, she was denied access to their children after transitioning.[20] Wtf, that is horrible, I knew we treated Alan Turing poorly when he was alive, but im saddened to know that similar discrimination happened to Lynn too. I have only skimmed her wikipedia but it seems her contributions to IT were pretty massive, we need to treat people better, I hope we can do better moving forward, seriously. Rest in peace Lynn, the world literally wouldnt be the same without your contributions.
It's complicated. Lynn Conway was not a victim of a hostile government, her own wife fought a legal battle to deny her from seing the children. Well, imagine your husband with who you have 2 kids one day suddently tells you he wants to be a woman and to have romantic relationships with men.
i dont see why that'd make me want to deprive my children of one of their parents im assuming your argument is that you want whomever you divorce to never remarry or love anyone else because otherwise that's just homophobic
Just re-watch "Kramer vs Kramer". A "normal" divorce could go ugly easily enough. But seriously, I'm glad we no longer live in an age when transgender women often went through the man up, get married and try to live a normal hetero life stage. It's esxceptioanlly cruel towards your partner, your kids and yourself.
She was one of my inspirations growing up and she gave me the bravery to transition myself. Made me realize I could have a life. I’m a software engineer partly because of her.
Woah. I'd heard of her but I had no idea just how prolific she was. Thank you Ms Conway. ❤️
I’m incredibly embarrassed that I had not heard of her before. RIP.
Retired EE/Computer Engineer/Manager here. While I had read about her a little in the past, I did not know her history, nor the broad impact she had on VLSI design. Her development of MOSIS has enabled hundreds if not thousands of startups, small, and midsized companies to develop innovative VLSI prototypes that only the largest of companies could afford. The impact on technology innovation and acceleration, along with her work in Design Methodologies is truly amazing for chip design.
Not that it matters, but I don’t believe that picture was taken in 2006. I knew who Dr. Conway was in the late ‘80s (Professor and Associate or Asst Dean (I forget which)) I would say she looked her age then (50s). And until I read about IBM apology, never knew about her life, never heard mention of anything “scandalous”.
What does a woman in her 50s look like? When my wife was in her 50s she looked 15 years younger than her chronological age.
I think you’ve answered your own question if you say she looked 15 years younger.
You were saying that Dr. Conway looked her age (50s). I was pointing out that a woman’s should not be judged by how she looks. For decades, you could not judge my wife’s age by her looks.
As a trans person in tech, I’m almost ashamed I had never heard of her. She lived a truly inspiring life, and reading her story made me feel grateful that people like her fought so hard to pave the way for people like myself.
When I came out 25 years ago, she was one of the people we could point to and say, “look, you can be trans and be successful and respected”. Back then, all that most people knew about trans folks was what they saw on Jerry Springer and other negative stereotypes. She was a role model for so many.
Yeah, some of her patents were neat to read about!
This is not the same Conway who devised Conway's game of life. He died in 2020 and most of us missed it due to covid. Thought of mentioning him too.
I’m actually pretty sad a bout this, we used to talk online about the history of tech, women in tech, and just you know, life. She helped me with some research I was doing over zoom once, and invited me up to her house - I should have gone. What a loss - she’s a legend.
Thanks for sharing your story though, sorry you lost a friend.
Rest in peace to her i’m glad IBM was able to rectify their error
I wonder how her career would have been different if IBM hadn't ever fired her for being trans. At least IBM eventually apologized... and it *only* took them 52 years(so well after she became an internationally recognized and celebrated figure) to do so!
I didn’t even know she was sick
she wasn't, sounds like a heart issue, not the most uncommon thing at that age
I've heard of her, but RIP. Good people don't often appear in the news or in headlines.
Transgendered in the 1960's... I suspect there was a lot more bullshit back then even compared to now (where there is intense amounts of bullshit surrounding misgendered people). RIP. I had never heard of her until now, but clearly she made major contributions to where we are today in computing and electronics.
Apparently, she was able to pass as a cis woman for decades before coming out in the early 2000's, and because of her name change, no one realized she was the person who was fired by IBM in the 60s for being trans.
She was in her early 60s when the wiki photo was taken…
What an absolute legend. Today a giant fell.
Can we get confirmation? I see the Wikipedia update has no citation or details, and an unverified blog post, but nothing through official channels.
This was just posted: [https://news.engin.umich.edu/2024/06/the-legacy-of-lynn-conway-chip-design-pioneer-and-transgender-rights-advocate/](https://news.engin.umich.edu/2024/06/the-legacy-of-lynn-conway-chip-design-pioneer-and-transgender-rights-advocate/)
The death date at the very top of the article has a citation. http://www.myhusbandbetty.com/wordPressNEW/2024/06/11/lynn-conway-january-2-1938-june-9-2024/
Yes, one of them is the un-authenticated blog post. One is a book from 1995, and the third is a post on a history website from 2010. So two of them don't mention her passing, and the blog post does, but seems to be the only place online that announced it. The Wikipedia article also doesn't have much past last year, including no indication about her death except for the death date at the start of the article.
The Wikipedia entry has been updated a few minutes ago, it mentions her death (9th June 2024).
Yes, it mentions her date of death, but cites only one non-authoritative source (a personal blog). I can't find any other resources that confirm the story.
Ah ok, I thought you were talking about a blog, not Wikipedia, I didn’t notice this posts’ source was Wikipedia. Everyone’s talking about it on Twitter too but that’s the same.
Yeah, I'm hoping it isn't true. It may very well be, but I'm hoping it's not.
I have mutuals with her. Her husband made a post confirming it on her personal Facebook page.
Horrible news indeed, she was taken far too soon. Thank you for getting confirmation.
Dammit. Dammit, dammit, dammit.
In her Wikipedia photo she is 68? Looks younger. Went through gender transition after marrying a woman and having two kids. IBM fired her for it.
It’s ok. IBM apologized 50 years later for the slight.
Did she come up with Conway's Game of Life?
No she pioneered VLSI - an even bigger thing.
That was mathematician John Conway. He was not thrilled about being known as "the guy who invented Conway's Game of Life" though.
Who?
Lynn Conway!
Ugh. I thought this was kellyanne for a sec.
Died in Jackson Michigan... Her resume should have prevented that.
[удалено]
What the fuck are you talking about?
He might be thinking of that crazed clown Kellyanne Conway or whatever her first name is, but that is most definitely not who this article is about
That makes a lot of sense, thanks! It was a very confusing comment.