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/
>
>