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A comment on America's first law regulating AI bias in hiring takes effect. Parent comment

Re:America's first law regulating AI bias in hiring takes ef... by alphazard on Sunday July 09, 2023 @11:17AM (#36655150)
White and black are technical terms used in physics and electrical engineering. White means all of the components of the spectrum and black means none of the components of the spectrum.

White noise contains all the frequencies. Black body radiation is radiation due to heat emitted from an object which does not reflect any light (is black).

That is the etymology of whitelist and blacklist.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:America's first law regulating AI bias in hiring takes ef... by Springtime on Sunday July 09, 2023 @11:27AM (#36655254)
> That is the etymology of whitelist and blacklist.

It's hard finding a definitive source for blacklist, though first I've read said to be from that sense. Many centuries old examples I've seen when looking this up seem to have already had it as some in-use vocabulary.

Edit: huh, entire parent thread has been entirely hidden on HN. I suppose it was too much of a digression.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:America's first law regulating AI bias in hiring takes ef... by tsimionescu on Sunday July 09, 2023 @01:10PM (#36656317)
The etymology of blacklist in English seems to be more related to a list of his enemies that Prince John (of Robin Hood fame) made of his enemies. Most likely the word is related to the MUCH older association between the color black and death in much of Europe.

Still, nothing to do with black or white skin or any bias against people of different skin colors, so not contesting your actual point.

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Re:America's first law regulating AI bias in hiring takes ef... by lotsofpulp on Sunday July 09, 2023 @01:26PM (#36656520)
>Most likely the word is related to the MUCH older association between the color black and death in much of Europe.

I would have thought it would have something to do with darkness/night versus bright days/day, where people experience more danger in the former than the latter for obvious reasons.

[ Parent | on HN ]