{"product_id":"computers-voice","title":"Computer's Voice","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA deconstruction of gender through the voices of Siri, HAL 9000, and other computers that talk\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Although computer-based personal assistants like Siri are increasingly ubiquitous, few users stop to ask what it means that some assistants are gendered female, others male. Why is \u003ci\u003eStar Trek\u003c\/i\u003e’s computer coded as female, while HAL 9000 in \u003ci\u003e2001: A Space Odyssey\u003c\/i\u003e is heard as male? By examining how gender is built into these devices, author Liz W. Faber explores contentious questions around gender: its fundamental constructedness, the rigidity of the gender binary, and culturally situated attitudes on male and female embodiment.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFaber begins by considering talking spaceships like those in \u003ci\u003eStar Trek\u003c\/i\u003e, the film \u003ci\u003eDark Star\u003c\/i\u003e, and the TV series \u003ci\u003eQuark\u003c\/i\u003e, revealing the ideologies that underlie space-age progress. She then moves on to an intrepid decade-by-decade investigation of computer voices, tracing the evolution from the masculine voices of the ’70s and ’80s to the feminine ones of the ’90s and ’00s. Faber ends her account in the present, with incisive looks at the film \u003ci\u003eHer\u003c\/i\u003e and Siri herself.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGoing beyond current scholarship on robots and AI to focus on voice-interactive computers, \u003ci\u003eThe Computer’s Voice\u003c\/i\u003e breaks new ground in questions surrounding media, technology, and gender. It makes important contributions to conversations around the gender gap and the increasing acceptance of transgender people. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"University of Minnesota Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Product","offer_id":54220939690328,"sku":"9781517909758","price":101.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/1295\/4195\/files\/9781517909758__676f5ac6ae384.jpg?v=1741159113","url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/computers-voice","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}