When will the liberals stop mincing words and admit we're at war with Radical Engineering?
Didn't get the joke I guess?
Engineers Nine Times More Likely Than Expected to Become Terrorists
31–40 of 43 posts
Re: Engineers Nine Times More Likely Than Expected to Become Terrorists
#32I'd say bullshit. Most terrorists come from religious minorities/immigrants that usually study engineering as it's more accessible than humanities/arts etc. due to language and/or cultural barrier. That's all.
Re: Engineers Nine Times More Likely Than Expected to Become Terrorists
#33Engineers are also a necessity for terrorist groupings. It may very well be that engineers aren't any more likely to become terrorists, it's that the ones that do are much more likely to find a terror cell that will take them, which then leads to actual terror. As opposed to, you know, dreaming about it.
The article covers this possibility, and argues that the evidence shows this isn't the case.
(I am not stating my opinion, only pointing out what the article says - and wondering whether you actually read it)
Re: Engineers Nine Times More Likely Than Expected to Become Terrorists
#34Ask seymour papert and he will tell you,the education os will crash like ussr,the infantilization of the minds of people that have passed through school and easy crude oil money is the lifeblood of terrorism
Re: Engineers Nine Times More Likely Than Expected to Become Terrorists
#35That line was a red flag too. Being in STEM almost guarantees not taking religion too deeply. We have better things to fill the void inside.
> We have better things to fill the void inside.
I imagine it's more a case of 'too busy working'.
Re: Engineers Nine Times More Likely Than Expected to Become Terrorists
#36That line was a red flag too. Being in STEM almost guarantees not taking religion too deeply. We have better things to fill the void inside.
Freeman Dyson, Donald Knuth, and Larry Wall might all disagree.
Oh shit, you namedropped 3 people. Guess you must be right, all engineers are religious.
Re: Engineers Nine Times More Likely Than Expected to Become Terrorists
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nine times a really small number is still a really small number. A well rounded education may well be beneficial for engineers, but if so it's not because of the terrorism potential.
The number isn't itself the important thing, it's the consequences of their actions on the world. I think we can agree that terrorism, and the world's reaction to it, is a pretty big thing. [EDIT, in response to the two replies I've received so far: I'm making a pragmatic suggestion. In pragmatic terms what matters is whether the benefits, whatever their size, outweigh the costs. I suspect they might, and even increm…
Responding to your edit: what you say is true if this were a purely isolated change that would have only this one effect. But terrorism is so unimportant that other effects will almost certainly dominate. For example, purely hypothetically, if changes in education reduced engineers' propensity for terrorism to the average rate, but decreased the quality of output from non-terrorist engineers by 0.001%, that would almost certainly be a net loss to society. Or if it increased the quality of output by 0.001%, that would be a nice gain but almost all of it due to non-terrorism reasons.
If a change in education hurts engineering in general then it's going to be a bad idea. If it helps, it's going to be a good idea either way. The only way terrorism would inform any changes in education would be if you could find some dial that had practically zero effect on anything else.
Re: Engineers Nine Times More Likely Than Expected to Become Terrorists
#38Re: Engineers Nine Times More Likely Than Expected to Become Terrorists
#39I already want to bomb the shit out of everyone who talks against javascript.
I think you mean "balm".
Re: Engineers Nine Times More Likely Than Expected to Become Terrorists
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
Freeman Dyson, Donald Knuth, and Larry Wall might all disagree.
Oh shit, you namedropped 3 people. Guess you must be right, all engineers are religious.
Definitely not trying to claim that straw man. I'm not religious so there's a disproof of your statement. GP said that being in STEM virtually excludes one from being religious. I just wanted to give three prominent counter-examples. I'm simply saying that they're likely not as rare as one might think. I've known many religious engineers first hand, and often times they can leave their faith at the door when they work.