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[-] luciferofastora@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 day ago

Approximation is an important tool for compressing information into useable forms. All labels are limited approximations too. Such compression is inevitably lossy, but that is a sacrifice for the sake of practicality. The important question is what level of compression is acceptable for a given context. If I describe the location of a chess piece on the board, I don't need to specify how far off-center on its square a given piece is, so a 0-7 offset along each of the two axes is enough for game purposes.

When it comes to gender, I think we all agree that [0, 1] is insufficient, but how do we determine what is sufficient? Do we argue that a 2-bit vector (masc, fem) is enough to describe {neither, fem, masc, both} for rough rounding, or do we need more detailed values along those axes, or perhaps a third axis too (or more)?

[-] qaz@lemmy.world 2 points 23 hours ago

Maybe a byte using bitflags?

[-] DeadMartyr@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago

This is a very nice and effective blurb, I'm saving this comment for future use

There's no awards/medals here but take this: 🥇

[-] luciferofastora@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 hour ago

Honestly, "I found this useful/interesting/amusing/worth leaving a positive comment avout" is the only award I need. Thanks for the words of appreciation ❤️

[-] Agent641@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Mine is #1B4D3E

[-] UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago

Ayyyyy wanna smash bros?

[-] RandomVideos@programming.dev 23 points 1 day ago

Even if every single person in the world had a unique gender, you could store that in 33 bits

You can store that in a small QR code

[-] Floey@lemm.ee 6 points 1 day ago

Those bits wouldn't really provide the information to construct that gender though.

[-] RandomVideos@programming.dev 5 points 1 day ago

Neither would if you stored it as a bit

[-] logging_strict@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 day ago

lets burn down our civilizations by spending all our wealth discussing this

The issue is based on legal terminology. Gender isn't a legal thing only pushed into our vocabulary.

Allocate an unbound memory blob and sit back for the herd of the Rust coders to line up. Sell them a soda while they do their best chicken parody

[-] CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 30 points 2 days ago

There are 10 kinds of people in this world. Those who understand binary and those who don't.

[-] luciferofastora@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago

There are n types of people in this world: Those who don't understand numeral systems, those who understand base x systems for x ∈ [2, n] and those who get pedantic about this meta-joke.

[-] bamboo 27 points 2 days ago

There are 10 kinds of people in this world. Those who get ternary; those who don't; those who thought this was going to be a binary joke

[-] stebo02@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 2 days ago

There are 10 kinds of people in this world. Those who get quaternary; those who don't; those who thought this was going to be a ternary joke; those who can see where this is going...

[-] flambonkscious@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 days ago

I might be a slow learner but I'm catching on...

[-] JackbyDev@programming.dev 4 points 1 day ago

Regardless of what base you're using, 10 is always the nth number. In base 10 (normal numbers), 10 is 10th. In base 2 it is the 2nd.

  1. 1
  2. 10
  3. 11

In base 16 (hexadecimal) it is the 16th.

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. A
  11. B
  12. C
  13. D
  14. E
  15. F
  16. 10

The original joke is "there are 10 kinds of people, those who understand binary and those who don't l" because 10 in binary is 2 in base 10. But they're pointing out that a similar joke works for all bases of numbers.

[-] flambonkscious@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago

I love that you felt like this needed explaining - thanks!

[-] stebo02@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 day ago

ah I see, you are the 10th kind!

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[-] davel@lemmy.ml 38 points 2 days ago

My gender is e, which can be represented by neither integers nor floating points.

[-] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 25 points 2 days ago

Can it be expressed or represented approximately in IEEE-754 form?

[-] davel@lemmy.ml 39 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Always approximated, never truly represented 😞

[-] ReginaPhalange@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

No taxation without approximation!

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[-] Valmond@lemmy.world 18 points 2 days ago

Everything can be represented approximatively.

e = π = 3

[-] vane@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago
[-] Thorry84@feddit.nl 29 points 2 days ago

Obviously, there is True, False and FILE_NOT_FOUND

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[-] thisfro@slrpnk.net 26 points 2 days ago

Choose one class of gender:

  • Natural
  • Rational
  • Irrational
  • Complex
[-] AeonFelis@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

That's a very quaternionphobic list.

[-] affiliate@lemmy.world 12 points 2 days ago

this is p-adic gender erasure

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[-] AnnaFrankfurter@lemmy.ml 18 points 2 days ago

Maybe it can be represented by 1qbit

[-] JackbyDev@programming.dev 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I don't think so, because with qubits the intermediate values can be non binary but the end result must be binary when read. Unless you wanna make a joke about filling out government forms I guess lol.

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[-] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 day ago

No Y = 0

Presence of Y = 1

Looks like you can express it with binary if you want, though you would need an interpreter

[-] Natanox@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 1 day ago

That's a chromosome you encoded there which is one of a few markers that define sex, not gender.

[-] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Same thing

It’s meaningless to who the individual is, unless you’re a conservative that believes playing with dolls or wearing makeup makes you a girl but then I don’t care for your opinion

[-] Natanox@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 1 day ago

Yes, chromosomes are meaningless to who someone is (except edge-cases).

No, sex and gender aren't the same.

[-] HiddenLayer555@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

You can have a partial Y chromosome or transfer of Y genes to the X chromosome during meiosis which can result in a person with both sets of sex organs, or more rarely, no sex organs at all. Even genetic sex cannot be accurately represented as one bit (let alone gender identity).

[-] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Why are conservatives so obsessed with people’s genitals?

In both of those cases you can determine whether a y is present or not

[-] superminerJG@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

for one, a person's genitals are not necessarily a direct indication of their biological sex, even without considering bottom surgery

[-] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 day ago

You’re confused, I was saying that

The person above me was saying otherwise but I think they’re a mean person because if someone was in an accident and lost their parts then they would say they aren’t their gender anymore

[-] Kuma@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

I might not fully grasp what you said, but from my understanding, they were discussing intersex people. In these cases, it's not an either/or situation at birth regarding sex characteristics or chromosomes. It could be a mix of various combinations, or sometimes none at all. The Y chromosome might not be fully present, which means a penis might not exist at birth, or it could be very small (and possibly non-functional for urination), but there may still be internal testicles (which I understand is quite common for some "types" of intersex ppl). In your interpretation, does this mean that there are individuals with a Y chromosome and then there is the rest of the population?

So, we have XY, XYY, XXY versus the others, who might have just one X, two Xs, or a partial Y (I think there were other combinations too). That doesn't seem very binary to me. It's like saying you're either a kid (under 18 in most countries) or an adult, which doesn't cover everyone and doesn't say much either. But maybe we took your comment too serious.

However, labels have always been a tool to simplify life, and they have never been strictly binary. It's similar to organizing a home with labels, there is always at least one drawer labeled other/miscellaneous.

There are as many intersex people as there are redheads, and they can have two sets of sex organs, no organs, or a combination of organs. This wide category range is why the person you responded to mentioned the parts, as these visibly influence how one's sex is documented. Intersex conditions can sometimes make this categorization extremely challenging.

[-] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 day ago

I appreciate the depth of your answer

Under my system they would still fall under the “has Y” or “Y absent” grouping

I do think a genetic blood test at birth would fix that issue of misidentification but since gender (y vs no y) should be meaningless to the majority of people, because everyone is equal and free to express themselves, it’s not worth the cost of doing it until there’s a need to affirm someone’s gender

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[-] tias@discuss.tchncs.de 16 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I've been thinking about this now and again. IMO gender, if one insists on tracking it at all (which I mostly find counterproductive), would need to be a vector / tuple of floating-point values. The components would be something like:

  1. Sexual Development Index: Encodes chromosomal sex, genitalia, and other primary sexual characteristics (X/Y chromosome ratio).
  2. Hormonal Balance & Secondary Sexual Characteristics: Combines hormonal levels and the resulting secondary traits (body hair, muscle mass, etc.).
  3. Brain Structure: A dimension indicating how a person's brain structure aligns with typical male or female patterns.
  4. Gender Identity: A measure of self-identified gender, representing the psychological and social dimension.
  5. Fertility/Intersex Traits: A combined measure of fertility potential and the presence of intersex traits (e.g., ambiguous genitalia, mixed gonadal structures, etc.).

Ideally it would track the specific genes that code for all of the above factors, but unfortunately science hasn't got those down yet.

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[-] SnotFlickerman 16 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Gender is not a boolean value, it's a variable.

[-] HiddenLayer555@lemmy.ml 25 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

🚫 const gender

👉 var gender

[-] flamingo_pinyata@sopuli.xyz 8 points 2 days ago

khm, khm
let gender

please don't use deprecated syntax

[-] qaz@lemmy.world 1 points 23 hours ago

But that's immutable 🦀

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[-] Atlusb@lemmy.world 13 points 2 days ago

And liable to type conversion errors and precision loss.

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this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2025
458 points (100.0% liked)

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