Jon Stewart calls out congressional nerd bashing over SOPA • Hacker News Board

Re: Jon Stewart calls out congressional nerd bashing over SOPA

#71

Post by pinaceae » Fri, Jan 20, 2012, 11:28 AM UTC

kiba wrote: post #25

pinaceae wrote: post #17

it points to a big shift in society and the economy. software is now a cornerstone of the world economy. modern life runs through the internet. even if you personally avoid the internet, you depend on it. but the baby boomer generation, represented by these politicians has not understood it. they know engineers as the guys building houses, bridges, aeroplanes, rockets. but software? it is an invisible world to them.…

For last couple of centuries or so, each generation grows up with unprecedented change in their lifetime. For example, I enter elementary school, the internet started to take off and browsers were primitive. Nowadays, we can enjoy the convenience of movie streaming, fast browsers, and extraordinary rich video games(Dwarf Fortress, I am looking at you). So it doesn't make sense to me that congressmen are literal dinos…

you're seriously too young to understand. i am 32 years old. the first time i went online was in 1999. before that i had personal computers, yes. but no internet whatsoever. can you even imagine a world without google and wikipedia?

i got my first mobile phone in that time frame.

my parents were born after ww2. your time as a youth shapes you, forms your understanding of the world. you translate everything you see into analogies of the past. a mobile phone is a like a normal phone without a cord. easy. but wrong for the generation that grew up with mobile phones.

my parents grew up with black and white tv. literally no computers in sight, anywhere. they got engineering diplomas while only utilizing a calculator (high tech for their time!) and pen and paper.

the majority of people (aka normal people) who where adults before 1985 do not "get" this new world the way you do. the outliers who build microsoft even didn't get it at first.

Re: Jon Stewart calls out congressional nerd bashing over SOPA

#72

Post by pgeorgi » Fri, Jan 20, 2012, 11:39 AM UTC

ck2 wrote: post #40

cpeterso wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These politicians used the insult "nerd" because they are trying to paint SOPA protesters in a negative light and to distance themselves from responsibility for the legislation's ill effects. ("How should I have known that would happen after we passed SOPA? I'm not a nerd!")

Actually they used to have a department that informed them of all these things in a non-partisan basis. But they shut them down. http://www.princeton.edu/~ota/ I'd like to think this problem will be solved when any of them over 60 now will eventually die off but unfortunately they also awarded themselves gold plated heath care. Ignorance knows no term limits and is somehow rewarded instead. ETA: added this if anyone…

Given the right position ignorance is pure gold (eg. delivered as cheques by lobbyists), no matter if "over 60" or not.

We have a couple of 30-somethings in German government, they "don't get it" (and/or don't want to) either.

So I'd advise against only relying on the "biological solution".

Re: Jon Stewart calls out congressional nerd bashing over SOPA

#73

Post by rmc » Fri, Jan 20, 2012, 11:41 AM UTC

bravura wrote: post #8

On the plus side, all the conspiracy theorists who claimed that Jon Stewart and The Daily Shows were pawns of their parent multinational media conglomerate, and thus wouldn't negatively cover SOPA, these people were wrong. On the negative side, no one in the news media or whistleblowers and WTF-watchers like Jon Stewart knew what SOPA was until two days ago. That's even scarier.

no one in the news media or whistleblowers and WTF-watchers like Jon Stewart knew what SOPA was until two days ago.

Or they did know of it, but didn't think it was that important. Maybe when they realised that Wikipedia et al. were willing to go dark for a day did they think "Hey maybe this is a big deal after all"

Re: Jon Stewart calls out congressional nerd bashing over SOPA

#74

Post by bad_user » Fri, Jan 20, 2012, 11:44 AM UTC

pinaceae wrote: post #17

it points to a big shift in society and the economy. software is now a cornerstone of the world economy. modern life runs through the internet. even if you personally avoid the internet, you depend on it. but the baby boomer generation, represented by these politicians has not understood it. they know engineers as the guys building houses, bridges, aeroplanes, rockets. but software? it is an invisible world to them.…

This is why it is hard working in companies that doesn't have a software/hardware related business model.

To them, sitting in front of a computer all day means you're not working.

Re: Jon Stewart calls out congressional nerd bashing over SOPA

#75

Post by noonespecial » Fri, Jan 20, 2012, 11:44 AM UTC

timthorn wrote: post #56

saulrh wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For last couple of centuries or so, each generation grows up with unprecedented change in their lifetime. I'd argue that this generation's changes aren't just unprecedented, but in an entirely different category. Not just in size, but in speed and extent. The cell phone alone is the most fundamental change in society in human history; suddenly, every person on earth can communicate instantly with almost any other per…

> The cell phone alone is the most fundamental change in society in human history What about the railways?

Railways and phones are part of the same change. The ubiquitous, ever-present global network. They just had a bit less penetration and a ton more lag.

Re: Jon Stewart calls out congressional nerd bashing over SOPA

#76

Post by bad_user » Fri, Jan 20, 2012, 11:45 AM UTC

pinaceae wrote: post #17

it points to a big shift in society and the economy. software is now a cornerstone of the world economy. modern life runs through the internet. even if you personally avoid the internet, you depend on it. but the baby boomer generation, represented by these politicians has not understood it. they know engineers as the guys building houses, bridges, aeroplanes, rockets. but software? it is an invisible world to them.…

This is why it is hard working in companies that don't have a software/hardware related business model. To them, sitting in front of a computer all day means you're not working.

I also have higher expectations from members of congress, people with allegedly good education ... "nerds"? Really?

Re: Jon Stewart calls out congressional nerd bashing over SOPA

#77

Post by patrickk » Fri, Jan 20, 2012, 12:00 PM UTC

zem wrote: post #68

saulrh wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For last couple of centuries or so, each generation grows up with unprecedented change in their lifetime. I'd argue that this generation's changes aren't just unprecedented, but in an entirely different category. Not just in size, but in speed and extent. The cell phone alone is the most fundamental change in society in human history; suddenly, every person on earth can communicate instantly with almost any other per…

"human history" covers a lot of territory. in terms of fundamental changes, nothing comes close to agriculture (let population densities skyrocket, enabled pyramid-style social setups) and writing (let knowledge accumulate rapidly from generation to generation).

Not to mention the wheel (that ubiquitous cliche), the discovery of bronze (an alloy of copper and tin that allowed for more durable weaponry), the Haber-Bosch process; and so on.

Re: Jon Stewart calls out congressional nerd bashing over SOPA

#78

Post by bmj » Fri, Jan 20, 2012, 12:01 PM UTC

HalibetLector wrote: post #24

neilk wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More on the plus side: Jon Stewart and his team of researchers and writers can go from knowing nothing about a topic, to absolutely nailing some of the central absurdities, in less than a week. Either comedy is easier than it looks or these guys are really good at their jobs.

I find it unsettling that Jon Stewart and his researchers and writers can go from knowing nothing about a topic to nailing some of the central absurdities in less than a week, but our congressmen and their staff CAN'T.

That's because Stewart and his team want to learn about the topic. You assume that our lawmakers are that passionate about every bill in front of them.

Re: Jon Stewart calls out congressional nerd bashing over SOPA

#79

Post by Sapient » Fri, Jan 20, 2012, 12:19 PM UTC

roel_v wrote: post #31

lusr wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've often wondered how to explain to non-developers the level of complexity in large software projects. I don't think the new generation will understand it any better than the old generation because, as you say, it's an invisible world. I am currently contracted on a project with 1.5 million lines of code and dependencies on hundreds of services written by a number of different teams. It takes a few weeks just to ge…

Why would they have to understand? Do you understand the intricaties of an airplane when you fly one?

"People" dont have to understand. Unless they are legislators trying to write new laws to govern "x", then they MUST understand.

Re: Jon Stewart calls out congressional nerd bashing over SOPA

#80

Post by DTanner » Fri, Jan 20, 2012, 12:20 PM UTC

ck2 wrote: post #26

Is "geek" too cool of a word now that they have to reach for the calculated more insulting "nerd"? (my apologies to proud nerds - but my point is that's not how they were using it) So if people who know what they are doing with computers are the equal of geeks, do politicians think they are the dumb jocks in this high school infantile throwdown?

If you watch SC2 on GSL with Tasteless and Artosis, you'll see that even "nerd" is no longer pejorative. The greatest compliment they know is "nerd baller". They refer to themselves and the audience as "nerds" all the time, but in a totally friendly way. It's almost a badge of pride.