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.”