Dear Everybody,

There is a saying that goes like this: A fool man can ask more questions than a wise man can answer! On p 4 of this issue you will find a list of questions many "fool" women ask on information technology. Perhaps some readers think that such questions should not be asked and certainly should not be allowed to occupy the pages of their favourite(!) Pattern Recognition newsletter. However, it becomes increasingly clear that the development of information technology can not ignore its social impact. The questions asked by women are only a subset of the questions asked by the general public and they cannot be dismissed simply as "feministic rubbish".

One of the issues we often have to expand upon when writing a proposal concerns the "social and economic benefits" that will result from the proposed research. Depending on the funding programme, one may get away with a "they will be great" or one may have to produce a fully worked out business plan that will be crucial to the funding of the proposal. It was at a social occasion a few years back, when, responding to somebody's question, I said that I was working on automatic vehicle navigation for underwater inspection. My reply prompted an instant response from another guest: "Oh, so you are one of those who try to put me out of work!" He turned out to be a deep sea diver. I tried to sell to him all that stuff about "dangerous environments for the humans", " increased reliability", "improved quality of life" and all that bull____ we write in the proposals. He looked at me sternly and said: "No thank you, I am very happy as I am. I do not find diving dangerous. I like my job and I want to keep it! Please find something else to work on!" So I did. A few months later I started working on satellite remote sensing, and I had the pleasure of meeting George, our "expert on the ground". Perhaps it would be a typical English under-statement to say that George did his best to ground our project! So, good old George would have felt secure in his job as the "expert on the ground" if he had the chance to read the article on p 2 that "Spy in sky costs more than a man on ground". But George will not read it because George is not a Pattern Recognition man as he never thought that we could do much good "with our machines"! After that, I would say that it is not surprising that nowadays it is not politically correct to even hint in our proposals that we may put people out of work. Aspects like increased safety, improved environment etc have to be stressed instead. Damn! We have to invent new bull____ for our proposals now !

Maria Petrou

PS Please excuse my cynicism; it is the result of a deprived childhood...