Geek Parade

Most people think of geeks as people who like computers, but I like to generalize it to something more. When people look back at the 90s and the new millenium, they're going to realize that the key to the culture lay not in the speed of the computer, nor the speed of the Internet, both important components, but the availability and access to information.

True, many geeks still get quality information from books, like The Tipping Point, Guns, Germs, and Steel, The Blank Slate, a whole host of history books, and personal experience living across the United States. However, there's also an incredible amount of "information" available on the net.

This information lies somewhere between facts, the kind teachers in elementary schools would quiz about, to analysis by folks who have interesting things to say.

This information is geek currency.

I was thinking about this somewhere between my second and third beer last night. Chadd had decided to do the two things he does best (party wise) last night: make chili and grill. Having recently defended, Chadd is taking on a job in Oregon, and will leave the house that became christened "Geekhaus" for its combination of five computer science graduate students, two of them German. Once he and Jaime leaves, the last of the original Geekhouse members will have vacated. The rest of the house is perhaps not strong enough, nor energetic enough to maintain the traditions that have been held. Too much work. Too much planning. Not worth it.

But in the meanwhile, this event would draw some twenty participants, and the discussion would turn into harvesting of organs, did it make economic sense? Can we grow meat, without requiring animals to have been born? Would vegetarians have no reason not to eat this meat? Why did Boston want to build a highway underneath the city? Why is this harder than building it underneath water? How much money did they spend on it and why?

What were the best pop movies of the past year? Was it King Kong? Was it Cars? Was it, well, what was it?

The currency is knowledge. Some facts. Some observations, mostly made by others who have had time to think about it, and then parroted back for the situation.

This may be geeky, but sports fans do it just as well. Some even have solid statistical arguments, while others blather about how T.O. is or isn't worthy, whether Bonds should pursue Aaron's record, whether A-Rod is worth the money that's spent on his salary. Indeed, sports typically represent much of water cooler talk, at least, among guys.

It's rare to talk about the economics, for instance. People say, should gay marriage be legalized? To me, it's not a religious matter, but a matter of rights. Whether the church sanctions it or not, there are legal rights that marriage conveys. If "civil unions" give the same legal rights as marriage, then fine. I believe that's what should be sought for (there are complicating issues, such as adoption).

Of course, some opponents say that this would lead to polygamy. To which I say, so what? If people can live with polygamy, than that works for me. Most people tend to see polygamy as one man, many wives, the traditional view held by Muslims. Even in Islam, though, it's highly unusual for a man to have more than one wife. But if polygamy is to be legalized, it seems to make sense that it should permit for other kinds of unions, such as one woman, many husbands, and presumably, two men, two women.

Other kinds of unions need to be considered more carefully as to what their legal implications are. For example, once there are three people in a marriage, then there are three sources of incomes. When two incomes became the norm, things got more expensive. Having a second income became less of a luxury, and more of a necessity. Living on one person's income is now the luxury. What are the economic implications of having polygamy? Of course, even were it legalized, I'd imagine few would engage in it, but who knows?

Admittedly, a geek discussion, like many discussions, don't require that many knowledgeable people. If you have five or six people, only two or three have to talk to make it work.

So what does it take to be a geek? First, computers are not the currency of talk. It's more important, oddly enough, to follow politics, both domestic and abroad. It helps to know about movies, the popular ones and the more obscure. Economics and history are better points of discussion than whether social networking is working or not. Indeed, shows like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are as likely to talk about techie issues like net neutrality than a typical geek conversation.

It takes work to be a proper geek because it's not smarts that's on display. We're not sitting around the table seeing who can prove the toughest theorems or work out the toughest equations or code the most challenging algorithms. Instead, the debate surrounds opinions we have on whatever. We're often not displaying that much personal opinion but opinions of others that we agree with.

And this represents one kind of discussion that lies outside the purview of most. But then, geeks aren't used to other kinds of conversations either. As many geeks lean left, they would find right leaning guys talking nonsense (to their way of thinking).

If geeks are to make themselves accepted, they need to have more people engage in these kinds of debates. Sadly, this isn't so likely.