geek

Peter K. peterk at enteract.com
Tue Sep 12 20:37:00 PDT 2000


There was a recent TV show called Freaks and Geeks - or something like that - that had a cult following. If you could find a website devoted to it - there's probably a discussion list, an acquaintence told me the show's been syndicated - you might unearth some interesting ideas.

For me, the defining characteristic of computer geeks or nerds is their propensity to condescend towards those who lack their expertise. Think of the Lone Gunmen on the TV show X-Files. Propellerheads who demonstrate a little tolerance to the uninitiated aren't really geeks or nerds in my opinion.

Peter


>>>>>> "Carrol" == Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> writes:
>
> Carrol> "Geek" originally meant a carnival performer who bit the
> Carrol> head off of chickens or snakes. How did it come to mean
> Carrol> professionals in technology?
>
>Hmm, I'm not sure of a precise answer for this, but I can offer a
>quote from the Jargon File (a kind of Internet, Unix community
>glossary that's decently informative):
>
>computer geek n.
>
>1. One who eats (computer) bugs for a living. One who fulfills all the
>dreariest negative stereotypes about hackers: an asocial, malodorous,
>pasty-faced monomaniac with all the personality of a cheese
>grater. Cannot be used by outsiders without implied insult to all
>hackers... A computer geek may be either a fundamentally clueless
>individual or a proto-hacker in larval stage. Also called `turbo
>nerd', `turbo geek'. See also propeller head, clustergeeking, geek
>out, wannabee, terminal junkie, spod, weenie. 2. Some self-described
>computer geeks use this term in a positive sense and protest sense 1
>(this seems to have been a post-1990 development). For one such
>argument, see http://www.darkwater.com/omni/geek.html. See also geek
>code.
>
>Jargon File can be found at <http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/jargon/>.
>
>I used the word emblematically in the essay I posted here; I'm a
>computer programmer, so that's the area of technical work in which I
>confront moral dilemmas about funding, research, and evil
>institutions. I imagine that for some kinds of scientists, engineers,
>and other technical people, the moral dilemma is largely the same,
>even if they don't identify themselves as 'geeks'.
>
>In my experience, the word is used widely now by insiders with a
>certain perverse pride; its negative connotations seem to have largely
>drained away as a result, I would imagine, of fairly technical folks
>having *massive* net worths, buying sports franchises, small cities,
>etc.
>
>Best,
>Kendall Clark
>--
>THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS http://monkeyfist.com/
>
>



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