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I think there needs to be a distinction (when using the term Nerd) between people who use technology, and those who create it. Users of technology are more com

by chiph 12y ago

I think there needs to be a distinction (when using the term Nerd) between people who use technology, and those who create it. Users of technology are more commonly called "Customers". Or "Consumers" in the new parlance. Whereas traditional Nerds are far more deeply involved with the technology, and grok it in it's fullness as they combine it into things never before seen.

calibraxis 12y ago
I think much of that depends on properties of the tech we create. After all, people are both producers and consumers. We have drives to do more than passively consume. Take Emacs. That's a technology that empowers people to become creators. It's hackable, and not in a grim boring way like Unix: "When large numbers of nontechnical workers are using a programmable editor, they will he tempted constantly to begin programming in the course of their day-to-day lives. This should contribute greatly to computer literacy, especially because many of the people thus exposed will be secretaries taught by society that they are incapable of doing mathematics, and unable to imagine for a moment that they can learn to program. But that won't stop them from learning it if they don't know that it is programming that they are learning! According to Bernard Greenberg, this is already happening with Multics EMACS." https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/emacs-paper.html https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/emacs-paper.html
riffraff 12y ago
I think "lusers" was the word used sometime ago for the people who use technology without understanding it :)
- Widow 12y ago
  Well that's not elitist or anything.
  - riffraff 12y ago
    well, elitism _was_ part of the thing. Please note I am merely reporting what I remember was the most common way to refer to non tech savvy people. This is the same culture that gave us LART, PEBKAC, cluebat, and of course the BOFH. Interestingly enough, in italian we used "utonto" as a blend of "utente" (user) and "tonto" (dummy, simpleton), showing the feeling was shared across language barries within similar groups.

by chiph 12y ago

calibraxis 12y ago

I think much of that depends on properties of the tech we create. After all, people are both producers and consumers. We have drives to do more than passively consume. Take Emacs. That's a technology that empowers people to become creators. It's hackable, and not in a grim boring way like Unix: "When large numbers of nontechnical workers are using a programmable editor, they will he tempted constantly to begin programming in the course of their day-to-day lives. This should contribute greatly to computer literacy, especially because many of the people thus exposed will be secretaries taught by society that they are incapable of doing mathematics, and unable to imagine for a moment that they can learn to program. But that won't stop them from learning it if they don't know that it is programming that they are learning! According to Bernard Greenberg, this is already happening with Multics EMACS." https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/emacs-paper.html https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/emacs-paper.html

riffraff 12y ago

I think "lusers" was the word used sometime ago for the people who use technology without understanding it :)

Widow 12y ago
Well that's not elitist or anything.
- riffraff 12y ago
  well, elitism _was_ part of the thing. Please note I am merely reporting what I remember was the most common way to refer to non tech savvy people. This is the same culture that gave us LART, PEBKAC, cluebat, and of course the BOFH. Interestingly enough, in italian we used "utonto" as a blend of "utente" (user) and "tonto" (dummy, simpleton), showing the feeling was shared across language barries within similar groups.