[118444] in Cypherpunks
[RRE]geeks
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Robert Hettinga)
Tue Sep 28 09:30:52 1999
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Date: Mon, 27 Sep 1999 19:39:58 -0700 (PDT)
From: Phil Agre <pagre@alpha.oac.ucla.edu>
To: "Red Rock Eater News Service" <rre@lists.gseis.ucla.edu>
Subject: [RRE]geeks
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Date: Mon, 27 Sep 1999 11:40:47 -0500
From: Gary Chapman <gary.chapman@mail.utexas.edu>
To: chapman@lists.cc.utexas.edu
Subject: L.A. Times column, 9/27/99
Friends,
Below is my Los Angeles Times column for today, Monday, September 27,
1999. As always, please feel free to pass this on, but please retain
the copyright notice.
This is likely to be a controversial column, and possibly disturbing
and even offensive to some computer professionals. My original draft
of the column had more than 350 additional words than the version
that was published this morning, and I tried, in my first draft, to
"soften" the link between computer professionals and the stereotype
of the "geek" and "nerd." I've also risked offending parents of young
people with autism. In any case, a sensitive but, in my opinion,
fascinating subject.
Carol and I are doing well, settled into our routine of work and
social life here in Austin. We're hoping that it will cool off and
that we'll have some rain soon -- we've gone about eight weeks
without any rain, and with high temperatures, and the vegetation
around here is really suffering. Global warming, I suppose. . . .
Best wishes to everyone.
-- Gary
gary.chapman@mail.utexas.edu
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Monday, September 27, 1999
DIGITAL NATION
Even if "Geekness" Is a Disorder, There's No Rush to Find a Cure
By Gary Chapman
Copyright 1999, The Los Angeles Times, All Rights Reserved
To the surprise of many people, and the dismay of some computer
professionals, the formerly derogatory labels "geek" and "nerd" are
now being used with pride -- or at least resignation -- by a growing
number of young computer experts.
What makes a computer geek?
There is some fascinating speculation going on these days that the
well-known stereotype of the computer geek or nerd may actually be a
description of mild autism, especially a form of autism known as
Asperger's syndrome.
Unlike classic autism, which often involves mental retardation and a
lack of verbal skills, Asperger's syndrome is at the "high
functional" end of the spectrum of autistic behavior, experts say.
People with Asperger's syndrome have normal or above-average IQs and
may even display savantism, or exceptional abilities in a specific
skill. What they lack is human empathy, a deficiency sometimes called
"mind-blindness," which shows up as a distinct inability to read
routine human nonverbal cues of attitude such as kindness, anger or
love.
Asperger's syndrome patients, who usually develop their traits at a
young age, often have these tendencies: excellent rote memory;
fascination with fantasy worlds and arcane facts; facility with math
and science; physical awkwardness or clumsiness and sometimes an
unusual gait; hyperactivity but with an ability to focus on
interesting problems for hours at a time; poor social understanding;
hyper-verbal activity but without the ability to make contextual
connections in conversations; and an appearance of insensitivity and
eccentricity. They are commonly victims of teasing in school.
And, apparently, some can do well in the computer world.
Indeed, some people claim that a paradigmatic case of Asperger's
syndrome is displayed by Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft Corp. and
the richest person on earth.
They say that Gates is famously negligent about his personal
appearance and schedule and that he has the autistic behavior of
compulsively rocking in his chair, which reportedly began early in
his childhood. They say he has temper tantrums and is abrupt and
abusive to his employees. He is also regarded as one of the smartest
people in American industry.
It's important to note that success and skill with computers do not
depend on any mental condition such as Asperger's syndrome, if there
is a connection at all. It appears that some people who may have a
mild form of this syndrome may simply find computers and computer
culture more comfortable than other professions.
An autistic woman who has a successful career in programming told
ComputerWorld magazine that when she's programming, "my code just
flies," and she can accomplish more in four hours than other people
can in two or three days. This is a widely known phenomenon in the
programming field -- such productive people are sometimes known as
"super-programmers" and are highly valued by employers. Few are
clinically autistic.
Asperger's syndrome was first described in 1944 by the Viennese
psychiatric researcher and physician Hans Asperger, who called his
child patients "little professors" because of their interest in
arcane subjects and their advanced verbal skills.
Not surprisingly, research published in German in 1944 was destined
to be ignored, so Asperger's work was not translated into English
until the 1970s, and it was only in 1994 that the syndrome became
part of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
(DSM-IV), the bible of psychiatric diagnosis.
There is still a great deal of controversy over what set of behaviors
the syndrome covers and its link to some computer and software
engineers.
Dr. Fred R. Volkmar, professor of child psychiatry at Yale University
and one of the world's leading experts on autism, thinks that the
concept of a mild form of Asperger's is bunk.
"The children we see with Asperger's syndrome are horribly, horribly
impaired," he said. He admits that there is a debate among
psychiatric experts over how far the boundaries of the syndrome
should extend.
Diluting the definition of autism to cover personality traits may
divert resources away from severely autistic patients who desperately
need help, Volkmar said.
"The dilemma right now is over what people mean by Asperger's
syndrome," he said. "We don't have enough data yet. It's likely that
in the next 10 or 20 years, we'll discover a great many new syndromes
that we don't understand well enough now. We do know that many people
with autistic-like behaviors can be highly functional and successful
in society."
A common reaction to the entire Asperger's debate, among
self-professed computer geeks, is a big "So what?"
They typically view non-geeks as relentless self-promoters, obsessed
with their own trivia such as fashion, style and money.
The geeks of the world, they say, are moving society forward with new
technologies, new ideas and a fierce commitment to free-thinking
intelligence. The last thing we need, they say, is a "cure" for
geekness, whatever its source.
Even if Thomas Edison had Asperger's syndrome, we need more Edisons
and not more pop stars, they argue.
Maybe the geeks shall inherit the Earth.
Gary Chapman is director of the 21st Century Project at the
University of Texas at Austin. He can be reached at
gary.chapman@mail.utexas.edu.
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Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
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"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
