The Evolution of the Nerd – from Zero to Hero to Megalomaniacal Villain

I don’t perceive myself as a classic nerd, though I have some nerdy characteristics – highly analytical, a tendency to be very precise with numbers, a strong interest in nerd topics such as science, technology and math. 

The truth is that I blundered into the technology field without really having an intense desire to become a techie or an engineer.  And I very nearly abandoned the technology path in the middle of my freshman year of college after a quarter focused on Chinese politics and French existentialism.  However, an intriguing physics course and a romance with a physics major provided enough inertia to keep me headed down the science path and then into engineering and computers.

All this is to say that I once understandably celebrated the transformation of the lowly Nerd from a caricature cog in the technology business to the hero of the computer and information revolution.  But sadly, the evolution of the Nerd has exceeded all expectations and become yet another cautionary tale of human temptation.

The space race and the subsequent computer revolution signaled the first subtle ascendancy of the Nerd engineer and programmer in society.  Cultural catalysts like Star Trek and Star Wars accelerated the pace. 

At first, the Nerd was a curious oddity – the necessary but somewhat comical sidekick of the heroic adventurers.  The caricature image of an unattractive guy with thick glasses, a pocket protector, a belt several inches too long and high-water pants was the stereotype.  He was a whiz at all things technical, but hardly an object of veneration, and often one of ridicule.  His technology skills were impressive, but no one really wanted to be him!

Solid evidence that the Nerd was gaining new respect came in the form of a movie franchise called ‘The Revenge of the Nerds’, which first appeared in 1984.  By this time Apple computers had been out for several years and the iconic Macintosh was launched in January 1984.

In Revenge of the Nerds, not only do the Nerd heroes exact revenge on their frat boy tormentors, but the lead Nerd even gets the pretty girl!  This transition from a valuable but slightly peculiar supporting role to star status heralded the creation of the new tech mythology.

The rapid assimilation of computer technology into our everyday lives and the recognition that computer entrepreneurs were becoming fabulously rich burnished the legend considerably.  Suddenly computer geeks were cool, especially if they had prospects of cashing in on their expertise.

Several movies followed that developed the trope of the former high school class dweeb showing up at a reunion as a millionaire tech entrepreneur with new confidence and flair.  The Nerd became a figure of respect and even envy, maybe a little dorky around the edges but with enough money and prestige to compensate.

As the 90’s came and went, bringing us the Internet, and the 2000’s accelerated the pace of technology with ipods, smartphones, Teslas, google and social media (ugh!), the billionaire tech wizards (perhaps questionable how much true wizardry there was behind much of what made billions – but that is another story) became our cultural icons with a position not far beneath movie stars, rock stars and British royalty – Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and a host of lesser heroic Nerds.

Then suddenly, the hero myth began to turn Greek.  The tragic flaws of the tech titans and their technologies became all-too-apparent:  the monopolies, the uber-wealth, the ironically fratboy-like workplaces, the incestuous manipulation of the marketplace, the appalling menace of social media, the arrogance and narcissistic expressions of massive egos.

The Nerd had become Frankensteinian.  With more money and power than anyone should ever have at their disposal, today the tech masters of the world are no longer the sought-after destroyers of the old empire as pictured in the renowned Apple super bowl ad, but rather the new plutocrats of an increasingly polarized and authoritarian society.

I am reminded of the last scene of Orwell’s Animal Farm, when the pigs and the humans are sitting together at a banquet and the once revolutionary pigs have taken on all the characteristics of their former persecutors.  But instead of pigs and humans, it is Nerds and the industrial robber barons.  And we are the creatures gazing with incredulity at the scene.  “The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”

Numbers, Statistics and Misconceptions

Numbers are confusing to most people.  Few of us are comfortable with statistics and really understand how to interpret them.  Any lingering numerical skills from the painful years of high school math are gleefully jettisoned, and we are easily led astray when confronted with any sort of statistical analysis.

Numbers can also be cynically manipulated or naively misused.  Numbers and statistics are ultimately representations of events, and the meaning behind the numbers must be clear in order to ensure the correct interpretation.

A powerful example of this occurred about six months into the pandemic, when the CDC reported that 94% of COVID deaths had other morbidities associated with the death.  Very quickly large numbers of social media posts and talking heads interpreted that to mean that only 6% of the reported COVID deaths were actually caused by COVID.  This misinterpretation persists even today and there are many Americans who believe the number of COVID deaths is radically overcounted.

But here is the highly probable truth:

First of all, no one really dies solely from COVID.  The virus manifests itself in other pathologies such as pneumonia, respiratory distress or cardiac arrest.  The attending physician will add those pathologies to the death certificate, along with any known factors that may have made them more susceptible – diabetes, obesity, cancer, weakened immunity, etc. – to provide as much information as possible for later analysis.

But how can one know for sure that these people didn’t die from those other problems?  Perhaps the COVID virus was just present, not a contributing factor.  Here is where additional statistical (not anecdotal!) data plays a decisive role – the number of EXCESS DEATHS.

The total number of deaths in the USA is tracked and is predictable to within a small margin of error each year based on historical data.  Thus, the number of excess deaths in 2020 over what would have been expected is a very good estimate for the true number of COVID deaths and is probably more accurate than the confirmed number.  There were 3.38 million deaths in 2020 versus 2.85 million in 2019 (see the graph below and the dramatic step between 2019 and 2020). This would mean that the 2020 COVID deaths are closer to 500k!  The death rate (number of deaths per one thousand people) had an 18% increase in one year, from 8.7 to 10.3.

 Over eight hundred thousand people will have officially died from COVID in the USA by the end of 2021. There were about 380k confirmed COVID deaths in 2020 and there will be at least 450k in 2021.  But when one analyzes the excess death data it is extremely likely that the total number of COVID deaths for the two years will exceed one million!

 

 

 

They Were Expendable

In an earlier blog post I wrote about the unconscionable use of anti-vaccine policies to bolster the Trumpian credentials of Republican governors such as Abbott and DeSantis, and how their incredibly selfish and narcissistic acts were resulting in increased sickness and death in their states. 

It is now mid-October 2021, and what should have been a summer of relief from COVID and a resumption of somewhat normal life has been torpedoed by an anti-vax movement that has been promoted and led by Trump’s sycophants and the craven politicians who see their future in his wake.

I have examined the deaths that have occurred in ten states that represent a cross-section of blue and red states – states that strongly encouraged or even mandated vaccinations for their citizens and those that squandered their opportunity to protect their citizens by attacking vaccine mandates and making idiotic speeches about freedom.

I have calculated the number of deaths per million people (thus normalizing the numbers so that there is an apple to apple comparison) that have occurred from April 1 to Oct 13.  I chose April 1 because vaccines were really starting to have an impact at that point in states that embraced them.  It was also the time when the delta variant began to play a significant role.

It is also important to note that less than 2% of COVID deaths in this time period were vaccinated people.

These statistics dramatically illustrate the difference in deaths between states that embraced the vaccine and those who made it a political issue.  

There have been over 165,000 deaths since April 1.  The excess deaths in red states where governors and republican legislators have fought the vaccine, as well as the collateral damage in all states of conservatives who died embracing the so-called ‘freedom’ that the death cult has espoused, easily exceed 1/3 of those deaths, or about 55,000. 

I guess if you have Trumpian presidential aspirations or are a brainwashed right-winger who somehow cannot acknowledge any societal obligations, then those 55,000 deaths don’t mean much to you.  Either your own grotesque ambition or some toxic mixture of demented myths and lies has hijacked your humanity.  The dead won’t haunt you, because you have no conscience.  The people who died were just a necessary sacrifice. They were expendable.