A quick idea that came to me -- an opening gambit for a discussion ?

[capri0mni]

A proposal for a definition of "Geek," which can exist independent of any particular cultural trend (e.g. video-games, comics, or spec. fic):

Noun:

Someone to whom the sentence: "You're over-thinking this," is inherently nonsensical.

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

Excellent! Will try at con and report back.

[capri0mni]

Yay!

I just saw your drive-by post from the con... this may fit in with your technology access panel, no? (You don't need to have access to an I-pad or the latest cellphone to belong to geek culture)

[jesse_the_k]

I've never designed a scientifically valid form. I can certainly just do "yes" and "no" columns for folks I encounter in random places (why yes, I was thinking of surveying the bathroom). If you have any expertise to lend, my ears are tuned.

And yes, that's why I'm on that panel. There are some folks who can't conceive that there are people without access to iPads or broadband. I'm there to represent those of us with disabilities who can't afford or can't get trained in access. (Even though we've been the alpha testers for much of the tech that's taken for granted. Phonograph records. Modems. OCR. Speech synthesis & speech recognition. Predictive text entry. Can you hear my hobby horse squeaking?)

OK, borrowed computer, must organize for con, will report later.

[capri0mni]

No expertise on the formation of a survey (wasn't thinking of a survey, at all, actually, just kind of randomly asking the question at the bar, or some such, just for the fun of it).

I was just coming at this from a Word-Geek perspective: that the word geek (originally Gek) comes from the Old Dutch language and originally meant "Village Idiot" ...in that those folks were often non-verbal, and "gek" was "imitative" of their speech, supposedly (Gek shows up in English sometime in the 1500s, iirc). And then, come full circle, and in modern times come to popular-science discovery that those whom we call "Geeks" tend to fall on the autism spectrum... and those are the same people who'd have been labeled as village idiot, back in the day...

And, based on one of the soliloquies Shakespeare wrote for Hamlet to say, he certainly recognized the personality type, since early on (before "To be or not to be") Hamlet bemoans his tendency to over think things, rather than act, and how that tends to lead to getting beat up on and teased, and called a coward. And Shakespeare, I'm pretty sure, had never even heard of World of Warcraft or "ThinkGeek."

[trouble]

I love that.

[capri0mni]

Oh, good (your default icon is perfect for this topic).