8 ms·

What 800 Nerds on a Cruise Ship Taught Me About Life, the Universe (2014)

43 points by kqr2 12y ago

conkrete 12y ago
This is by far the most poetic article I've read on Wired
cm2012 12y ago
Where do you find themed cruises like this? Last time I went on a cruise my wife, sister and brother in law had a blast playing pandemic and D&D, but there weren't too many other geeky people around that I could see (either older people, people with family, or young party types)
- radley 12y ago
  https://jococruise.com/ https://jococruise.com/
minikites 12y ago
> Where the Sea Monkeys see community, I see epistemic closure. All the shared references and common rhetorical tactics don’t feel supportive to me—they feel almost lazy, as if the triumph of the nerds means not having to meet the normals halfway. This really is the main problem with nerd/geek/gamer/etc "culture", it's actually very exclusionary to people and if you don't possess the right amount of shared knowledge, you're ostracized. Nerd "culture" is also uncritical of the objects of worship, watch what happens if someone criticizes a sacred cow like Firefly or Game of Thrones. Critical of individuals and uncritical of art is exactly the opposite of what we should strive to be.
- lsd5you 12y ago
  That's really insightful. So perhaps the 'objects of worship' are in some sense for the worshippers no longer just a piece of art or entertainment, and so cannot be held criticically by them without creating a certain amount of cognitive dissonance. To me (and I imagine many/most adults) rehashing and revisiting a film (e.g such as star wars) and its contents diminishes the film, regardless of how great the film is. There is clearly a different mode that some people enter into whereby it becomes something else, a touchstone for the communal experience, and a piece scripture for their worship. It takes all sorts!
- rtpg 12y ago
  Yeah, for all the whole "haha look at all these normal people caring about their local sports teams"-type of memes in those circles, popular nerd culture is basically exactly the same sort of behavior. There's extremely vile behavior in these circles, a sort of one-up-manship that ends up creating environments where things like Gamergate can prosper.
  - minikites 12y ago
    Exactly, it becomes a race to define the most narrow circle of who is "in" and who is "out" and since nerd identity is defined by consumption, it becomes a race to see who can consume the most obscure thing in an effort to keep people out. This is why gamergate is so threatened, it's diluting the only identity they have because they're so empty of meaningful personhood otherwise.
  - theorique 12y ago
    Gamergate isn't about competition, though - it's focused on... ethics in video game journalism.
- partition 12y ago
  Pretty much. Also, as a non white person I feel their echo chamber effects acutely. Casual racism and race "realism" is especially pronounced in nerd circles.
- A_COMPUTER 12y ago
  >watch what happens if someone criticizes a sacred cow like Firefly or Game of Thrones. I hate a bunch of nerd sacred cows and I criticize them all the time. People are surprised for a second and pantomime outrage and then everything goes back to normal. The trick is to signal personal preference, not signal out-group contempt, which is kind of a trigger for some people.
  - minikites 12y ago
    But that's the point, isn't it? Almost all of nerd identity is defined by consumption preferences so if you criticize their consumption preferences, you're criticizing them as a person. Defining yourself by what you consume is very mentally unhealthy.
- iterationx 12y ago
  Isn't that the nature of a group - it needs to have boundaries that define it both the positive and negative sense (eg. people in our group support X and don't support Y). Otherwise the group or culture has no boundary and therefore includes everyone and cannot be considered a subset.
thom 12y ago
I guess there were better ways to spend the cruise: http://gavinverhey.tumblr.com/post/111287496771/the-time-i-fell-down-a-volcano http://gavinverhey.tumblr.com/post/111287496771/the-time-i-f...
- granjef3 12y ago
  Thanks for linking this, was a very interesting read!
- tricolon 12y ago
  Thanks for that. I'm not even halfway through and I'm very glad I started.
pixelglow 12y ago
> If the JoCo Cruise is a church, I am apostate. That’s why I couldn’t stop worrying and love the Sea Monkeys. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to be a nerd anymore. It was that I did. Or rather, that I already, inescapably, was. That boat and those people? They were my hometown. Poignant article, some echoes in my own life. My nerd cred includes liking comics, Star Trek, computer programming, obsessing about science fiction minutiae, explaining real life using computer/SF/fantasy tropes etc. But somehow never quite belonging with all the cosplaying, filksilking, us against the muggles depth of nerddom. And never quite belonging with mainstream society either -- why do people NOT want an explanation how MCU Bruce Banner can control his Hulk persona, for example? It's strange this feeling of not belonging. The author identifies this with a former life ("my hometown"), presumably because he's partly outgrown it. While I have outgrown some parts of my nerddom, I've always felt this "not belonging" though.

43 points by kqr2 12y ago

This is by far the most poetic article I've read on Wired

cm2012 12y ago

Where do you find themed cruises like this? Last time I went on a cruise my wife, sister and brother in law had a blast playing pandemic and D&D, but there weren't too many other geeky people around that I could see (either older people, people with family, or young party types)

radley 12y ago
https://jococruise.com/ https://jococruise.com/

minikites 12y ago

> Where the Sea Monkeys see community, I see epistemic closure. All the shared references and common rhetorical tactics don’t feel supportive to me—they feel almost lazy, as if the triumph of the nerds means not having to meet the normals halfway. This really is the main problem with nerd/geek/gamer/etc "culture", it's actually very exclusionary to people and if you don't possess the right amount of shared knowledge, you're ostracized. Nerd "culture" is also uncritical of the objects of worship, watch what happens if someone criticizes a sacred cow like Firefly or Game of Thrones. Critical of individuals and uncritical of art is exactly the opposite of what we should strive to be.

lsd5you 12y ago
That's really insightful. So perhaps the 'objects of worship' are in some sense for the worshippers no longer just a piece of art or entertainment, and so cannot be held criticically by them without creating a certain amount of cognitive dissonance. To me (and I imagine many/most adults) rehashing and revisiting a film (e.g such as star wars) and its contents diminishes the film, regardless of how great the film is. There is clearly a different mode that some people enter into whereby it becomes something else, a touchstone for the communal experience, and a piece scripture for their worship. It takes all sorts!
rtpg 12y ago
Yeah, for all the whole "haha look at all these normal people caring about their local sports teams"-type of memes in those circles, popular nerd culture is basically exactly the same sort of behavior. There's extremely vile behavior in these circles, a sort of one-up-manship that ends up creating environments where things like Gamergate can prosper.
- minikites 12y ago
  Exactly, it becomes a race to define the most narrow circle of who is "in" and who is "out" and since nerd identity is defined by consumption, it becomes a race to see who can consume the most obscure thing in an effort to keep people out. This is why gamergate is so threatened, it's diluting the only identity they have because they're so empty of meaningful personhood otherwise.
- theorique 12y ago
  Gamergate isn't about competition, though - it's focused on... ethics in video game journalism.
partition 12y ago
Pretty much. Also, as a non white person I feel their echo chamber effects acutely. Casual racism and race "realism" is especially pronounced in nerd circles.
A_COMPUTER 12y ago
>watch what happens if someone criticizes a sacred cow like Firefly or Game of Thrones. I hate a bunch of nerd sacred cows and I criticize them all the time. People are surprised for a second and pantomime outrage and then everything goes back to normal. The trick is to signal personal preference, not signal out-group contempt, which is kind of a trigger for some people.
- minikites 12y ago
  But that's the point, isn't it? Almost all of nerd identity is defined by consumption preferences so if you criticize their consumption preferences, you're criticizing them as a person. Defining yourself by what you consume is very mentally unhealthy.
iterationx 12y ago
Isn't that the nature of a group - it needs to have boundaries that define it both the positive and negative sense (eg. people in our group support X and don't support Y). Otherwise the group or culture has no boundary and therefore includes everyone and cannot be considered a subset.

thom 12y ago

I guess there were better ways to spend the cruise: http://gavinverhey.tumblr.com/post/111287496771/the-time-i-fell-down-a-volcano http://gavinverhey.tumblr.com/post/111287496771/the-time-i-f...

granjef3 12y ago
Thanks for linking this, was a very interesting read!
tricolon 12y ago
Thanks for that. I'm not even halfway through and I'm very glad I started.

pixelglow 12y ago

> If the JoCo Cruise is a church, I am apostate. That’s why I couldn’t stop worrying and love the Sea Monkeys. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to be a nerd anymore. It was that I did. Or rather, that I already, inescapably, was. That boat and those people? They were my hometown. Poignant article, some echoes in my own life. My nerd cred includes liking comics, Star Trek, computer programming, obsessing about science fiction minutiae, explaining real life using computer/SF/fantasy tropes etc. But somehow never quite belonging with all the cosplaying, filksilking, us against the muggles depth of nerddom. And never quite belonging with mainstream society either -- why do people NOT want an explanation how MCU Bruce Banner can control his Hulk persona, for example? It's strange this feeling of not belonging. The author identifies this with a former life ("my hometown"), presumably because he's partly outgrown it. While I have outgrown some parts of my nerddom, I've always felt this "not belonging" though.