Thursday, November 15, 2007

On Nerds

So, there's this blog post that is making the rounds that purports to be a "nerd handbook", or advice on how to relate to the nerd in your life. Cyde points out, in his blog, how this article is way off base, filled with overgeneralizations and misfounded beliefs. Anyone who knows Cyde realizes that Cyde is pretty nerdish (although I think personally he's starting to disqualify for the term and is starting to move more solidly into geekdom, but that's aside the point here), and yet he doesn't, either on his own statements or in my evaluation of him based on what I know, come close to meeting most, or even any, of the nerdly characteristics that our blogging friend sets out in his article.

Indeed, as Cyde comments in his closing, our feckless author seems to be describing something more like autism than nerdism. Autistic people, including many Aspies and others in various places along the autistic spectrum, have a great deal of trouble relating with other people's emotions. The comments that I've heard from so-called "high functioning autistics" and Aspies is that they do not instinctively understand emotions and must cope using cognitive modelling strategies. As I understand it, more intelligent autistics are able to build and use more complex system models in their efforts to approximate the instinctive emotional intelligence that comes automatically and instinctively to nonautistic people. This modelling is exactly what our blogging friend is referring to when he talks about nerds seeing "the world as a system which, given enough time and effort, is completely knowable". It's therefore quite obvious to me, at least, that what he's writing about is the way high-functioning autistic people adjust to the world, and I said as much in a comment on his blog (you will have to scroll down quite a ways). Several of his other points also speak to autism, but I won't make that argument here -- I don't have to.

His response was to issue an ineptly conclusory denial of my point. Rather than presenting a coherent argument, he instead went through the core points of his argument, drawing razor-fine distinctions between autism and nerdism that, in his eyes, convince him that he's successfully distinguished nerdism from autism -- and just as likely convinced anyone not already invested in believing otherwise that there's a great deal in common if not a clear connection between the two. Cyde initially told me that I had been "fisk[ed] ... in a very inept manner" but really that's not what happened. He didn't fisk me; he fisked himself. How droll.

Of course, the observation that a lot of nerds (and geeks) are autistic, or at least somewhere on the autistic spectrum, is nothing new. A more interesting discussion can be had on the implications created by the high prevalence of people with emotional intelligence disabilities in online communities, but this post is not that discussion. And neither is the one on the Rands in Repose blog.

7 comments:

  1. I do think a lot of nerds have highly functioning autism. It's kinda perplexing to realize that in high school years, and even later, I've been continuously trying to intellectually model social interactions by imitating others. I always envied others because they seemed to unnaturally good at it... the spontaneity of it, the intuitive qualities were completely lost on me. A lot of social context of really awkward situations I put myself into has not "resolved itself" in my head until years later, and then I looked back and... oh my god. Was I blind ?

    I am positive that computers don't help this sort of autism - they make it worse. That's why "nerds" should acknowledge their limitations but also try to grow past some of them. A nerd will never be an extrovert, nor he/she should be forced to, but they can learn to switch into that mode for a couple of hours, learn some spontaneity, and they should never, ever, ever, be allowed to stop showering, stop exercising and seal themselves in The Cave for a week. That road only leads into darkness.

    ReplyDelete
  2. And the award for most petty blog entry goes to....

    ReplyDelete
  3. My mom used to tell me she thought I might have function autism. That was actually very hurtful :-(

    However, most "this is what nerds are like" articles generalize way too much.

    I think this one has some merit though, even if some individual points are off-base:

    http://www.dobadob.com/geek-humour/15-reasons-geeks-make-great-boyfriends/

    Of course I might be prejudiced as a guy geek, but still...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Here's an example of a system model for characterizing an emotion-driven character...

    Shreklisch Onion-Layer Character Model

    ReplyDelete
  5. aleksey> ... "nerds" should acknowledge their limitations but also try to grow past some of them. A nerd will never be an extrovert, nor he/she should be forced to, but they can learn to switch into that mode for a couple of hours, learn some spontaneity, and they should never, ever, ever, be allowed to stop showering, stop exercising and seal themselves in The Cave for a week. That road only leads into darkness.

    Hi there, please don't take this as a personal flame, it is not and instead I am grateful you give me the hook to say something about the matter. Your sentence above is what the neurotypical would say, and yeah they (in a sense, pardon some simplification) do rule the world. But that is what "they" fear the most: being alone face to face to the "infinite".

    Not only it's not granted at all that these forms of "highly functional autism" are in any way an intrinsic limitation, I'd even go as far as to say that the "spontaneity" you are talking about is just foolish at "our" (or even yours?) eyes, being completely irrational and basically irrelevant and quite hurting on the long run (think how bad things are going around the world thanks to this globalized "normality" of the never ending lowest level Nash-equilibrium of the always shortest term satisfaction).

    I too have experienced plenty of awkward situations in my life, and I too have learned "strategies" to cope with it rather than any kind of "direct feeling". Yet to me it's a bit like being on a foreign planet, surrounded by irrational people and trying to cope with it. I do not feel in any way diminished by this (well, I used to when I was younger, but then I went to the cave... more on this later). I *do * have feelings btw, I just have a working mind as well, and it's *you* (my dear hypothetic neurotypical and frightened neighbour) who can't get the reality of this, because this implies "responsibility", the one thing you fear most, even more than hell. You keep thinking of Mr Spoke or of Rain-man, but hey that's TV and - you know, do you? - *that* is really evil, not the cave.

    I'm not like Mr Spoke, despite I love the character: would you say he is a sub-normal or a super-normal? Here the discussion finally leads to what is this "norma" we refer to. FWIW, I'll tell my norma: all this smoozing and chit-chatting and hugging and so on and so forth, you have this crap in modern western civilization only, strictly tied to keeping people a bunch of stupid consumers of the very dominant socio-economic-cultural masturbating patterns they at the same time serve and make.

    My point of reference is traditional cultures where there still is a link with spirituality, in its true form, and where "truth" exists and "rationality", meant as clear thinking and wisdom, is a value, not these choruses of nonsense and selfish cries the neurotypical call "spontaneity" and value more than life itself.

    Going to the cave is safe, natural and it's part of our very (original) growing path. Every main spiritual tradition talks about it, though often in a metaphoric way: going to the cave has been called going to the desert for 40 days, or going to the top of the mountains, or traveling the world as Ulysses, and in many more ways all telling the same thing.

    You *need* to go there if you want to grow up in the deep sense, you need to face your monsters for that. So, in the end, the problem I see is that this neurotypical-dominated society doesn't let us (and here I mean *all* of us) do it enough! And do it properly! Then, and only then, you can come back in peace and be a full human. Our contemporary society is so structured that in order to maintain its internal hierarchy of power and exploitation, it has cancelled all this, the very idea of "growing" has been banned (everybody after eternal youth).

    Should I be ashamed to be what I am? NO WAY!

    Should I be subjected to the new medicines the pharma corporations are gonna produce to kill my very best genes? DON'T EVEN THINK TO TUCH ME YOU BASTARDS!

    Sorry, just trying to make too many points clear. Anyway I am confident: man is going to evolve... eventually, and in a way or "the other".

    Love and respect. -LV

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks ludovicovan... I didn't take your comment the wrong way because I can tell you're just like me. In a way, I found it inspiring. It's easy to lose touch with our nature in this society, and even easier to succumb to the projected judgements of others.

    ReplyDelete